A stroll through the woods... well, sort of. (Rhi/Open~)

[Anonymous]

"Go through the woods, they said... it'll be a nice relaxing walk, they said..."

The extensive line of curse-words that follows would be enough to kill the Pope if there was still one in existence as Azra trudges along the trail, her pack high on her back. It was about two pounds heavier than usual thanks to the snap-decision she had made back when the sun had reached its zenith overhead; as useful as the skirt usually was in getting her out to the clusters of Mordecai that she had helped once upon a time, the thick green brocade material was hardly practical in this humid heat. As such, the blond had rolled it up and stuffed it into her bag, leaving her in her green cropped tank-top and matching shorts that may as well be panties, with as little skin as they covered. The trees overhead hadn't provided as much shelter from the sun's rays as she had initially thought, although it was more the heat that bothered her than its effect on her skin. At least she had tanned to a nice light bronze - Hell, Azra shudders to think of how this little excursion would be going if she didn't. The bug bites were bad enough... second-degree burns would've been enough to force her to turn around and return to Reajh to seek medical attention. As it was, though, she was only another hour's hike from the clearing that she had circled on her map as a good place to camp.

A few more paces and a wind hits her just right, garnering a sigh of relief from the green-eyed Connlaothian. It was inspiration, in fact, for her to take advantage of her brilliance - or, rather, she had thought it was brilliance while the little fellow at the last inn had thought her strange for wanting to carry an extra-large waterskin when she lacked a pack animal to carry it. Setting her pack down at her feet, Azra slings the massive container of water in front of her. Unscrewing the cap and upending the water skin over her head, Azra sighs as the liquid provides her with temporary relief from the heat; she even closes her eyes, tilting her head back to take in a mouthful. Once her arms were unable to keep the bag up, she lets it drop back down to its place at her side, shaking her head to get her bangs out of her face before sighing with contentment. Now she was ready to continue her journey... and so she bends over to pick up her bag.

[Rhindeer]

His turn to hunt, Cadmus said. He was tired, Cadmus said. And from what? All he had done all day was fly around doing stuff, like, well...alright, like carrying him, Sorin supposed. Okay. So that could be hard work, but hunting was even tougher! And Cadmus could shift--into a goddamn gryphon. Hunting was cake for a gryphon.

But no. The other man flat out refused and there he stayed, back at camp lounging beneath a tree. Lazy ingrate.

Well, that just meant he would have no right to complain if dinner took a while. Unlike Cadmus, he couldn't just swoop in and snag a hare. Nope, it was snares for him; his trusty pistol was long since out of ammo and it would be a long time before he went back to Connlaoth. Goddamn, he'd taken that pistol for granted.

Now he just had to find a rabbit run...

It was while he was tromping through the woods looking for tracks and holes that looked like burrows (hey, he was a soldier, not a hunter) that he became aware of what sounded like footsteps, and close by at that. Sorin froze in place, listening hard, not sure if he was hearing what he thought he was. But nope, there it was, continuing on just a little beyond him--and it couldn't have been Cadmus, as the clearing was back in the other direction.

Hmm...

Curiosity getting the better of him, and because he'd met more than his share of lonely travelers that turned out to be magic-cursed--figured, he was in mage country here--he crept slowly in the sound's direction, heard whoever it was stop, and shoved some low branches that were blocking his path out of the way just in time to catch a glimpse of a blond woman upending a water skin over her head, getting her shirt all wet. For a moment it was as though he'd stumbled upon some private show (she really seemed to be enjoying that, or maybe it was just his mind warping things), and then she bent over to get her bag and he realized she really wasn't wearing much at all.

It was at that moment that a branch he'd been holding out of the way slipped out of his hand, snapped back, and thwacked him good in the chest. He yelped in pain and stumbled out, tripping over a bush in the process and nearly losing his footing completely, but fortunately for him he managed to save some face and catch himself before he ate it.

"Oh, uh...heh, hi," he said after a moment, rubbing his sore chest. Damn, that hurt. "I wasn't spying on you."

Smooth, Sorin. Very smooth.

[Anonymous]

Hunting, huh? Well that was something that Azra had only needed to do once thusfar on her little trip - the deer had gone down without much of a fight at all, a precise shot through its eye as it slumbered all the more that was needed. She had ended up lingering at that campsite for a couple more days, but the smoked meat had proven to be well worth it. Hell, she'd even managed to sell off the rest of the meat (and the beast's hide) in the next village she passed through. Such practical thinking was something that most of the members of her old group would've thought her incapable of doing, but that had been a different situation. How could she prove her own proficiencies, after all, when she was so closely guarded and so strictly taken care of? That train of thought is far from her mind, though, as she hums softly to herself, slinging her pack back over her shoulders and heading toward camp.

Or, rather... that was what she was about to do when Mr. Smooth-As-Sandpaper makes his grand entrance.

That yelp startles her, the pack dropping back down in front of her as she drops into a crouch behind it as Sorin barely manages to prevent from faceplanting in the dirt, his awkward attempt at trying to pass off what he was doing as just harmless coincidence ignored as she reaches for the open top of her bag. There's only one nation in the world, he would surely realize, that her own pistol comes from as she pulls it out, quickly rising back up and aiming at the center of his chest. Call it vindictive, call it bitchy, call it whatever comes to mind... Azra had been startled after being eyed like a piece of meat. No matter how attractive she may have found him had they met under different circumstances, or if she would have at all, she wasn't going to let him get off light. Her gun's barrel never wavering, she scowls at him.

"Sure, and I bet that you claim to have slept with plenty of women when all the more you've done is renamed your hand a few times. Now move along, fuckwit - I've got miles to go before I sleep and I'm not in the mood to waste a bullet on your dumb ass."

Snorting derisively, the rather fetching blond glares holes through him as she waits for him to back up, nothing giving at all in those green eyes. If he thought that the young lady was going to be easily intimidated just because she wasn't wearing all that much and was traveling alone, why, it looks like he's got another thing coming...

[Rhindeer]

The last thing Sorin expected was to wind up staring down the barrel of a gun.

With a startled jolt and a gasp, he took a step backwards and threw his hands up, not about to test her and find out just how trigger happy she was. Holy fuck, a pistol? A goddamn pistol? Who carried pistols here? He hadn't seen a one since leaving Connlaoth, and he was far too distracted by the one currently aimed at him to connect the dots and register what that meant. "Whoa, whoa, easy lady," he said, and would have said more--reassurance that he meant no harm, the usual--when she spoke up first.

The range of emotions that played across his face then probably would have been comical under different circumstances, starting with wide-eyed surprise and ending in scowling, brow-furrowing confusion. He lifted an eyebrow, tilted his head to the side like a dog trying to figure out some strange sound, and blinked slowly. "What...the hell are you going on about and how the hell'd you make that connection?"

Renamed his hand? What the hell did that have to do with anything?

If he wasn't trying so hard not to get shot, he might have laughed as some of the ridiculousness of the whole thing started to sink in. He'd just made a royal ass of himself, wound up on the business side of some pretty woman's pistol--that in and of itself could have been sexy if the situation was different, sigh--and she was spouting nonsense straight from crazy town--wait, pistol?

It registered then. This was Adela, not Connlaoth. Sorin may have been used to being around gun-toting folks, but people shouldn't have them here.

Straightening up and looking at her more sharply, hands still up, his eyes narrowed a bit. "How'd you come by that pistol?" He nodded at it. "You can only get those in Connlaoth."

[Anonymous]

Sorin was a little slow, wasn't he? Not in just putting two and two together for an equation that she hadn't even started pondering yet, but in understanding when he had been well and truly insulted. Then again, considering just how elegantly he came into the scene... Azra can't say that she's all that surprised. The laugh that comes from the blond is short, acerbic as she shakes her head slightly as he tries to tell her to take it easy - he had just fumbled what could have been an ambush attempt and he expects her to take it easy?! - but then it stops as he continues to talk, an incredulous look settling on her features as she arches a brow. Looks like this moron had never learned the value of simply keeping his mouth shut to let people just wonder if he was stupid instead of removing all doubt by letting words come out...

"What am I talking about? It's clear as day - the way you were lookin' at me, it's obvious that the only women you've ever seen naked are the girls you've spied on as they took a dip! Shit, as ugly as you are--"

He wasn't really that ugly, by the by - in fact, he was actually sort of attractive. With the reddish tinge of her temper, though... she couldn't see that.

"--I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't pay a woman to take her clothes off for you!"

Ouch... and here he thought her tongue was sharp before! Would she be apologetic once she found out that she was being this brusque to a fellow Mordecai? Probably not - after all, he had been the one to not come within range to allow either of them to sense just what the other person was. Him suddenly finding his testicles (however small Azra thought them to be) and straightening up doesn't get anything to waver, be it in her eyes or in her aim... although his question about where she got her pistol earns a more pointed glare.

"Military issue, you sorry son-of-a-bitch, and you can be damn sure that I know how to use it. Now turn your sorry ass around and make tracks before I decide to leave your corpse behind as basilisk food."

Her thumb moves then, cocking the hammer audibly. A scary sound was worth more than a thousand scary sights, she had been told once... well, it looked to be time to put that theory to the test.

[Rhindeer]

Ugly?

She just called him ugly!

He was not.

However, with her armed and him currently not, he wasn't about to argue the point. So instead he just grit his teeth and squared his jaw, glaring silently at her--at least until she--this total and complete stranger--went and insulted his sex life. Miffed confusion soon blossomed into real anger with a soft snarl, he took a step toward her.

"Listen, you little cunt--" He stopped, his eyes lowering to the pistol, and he ground his teeth, counted to five, and took a deep, calming breath. Riiiight. Remember who has the gun here, Sorin. Calm down. It was hard, though. He wasn't used to being on this side of an encounter and he'd been perfectly nice and then she had gone and started firing off bullshit.

At least he got some answers, though.

"No shit, I know what it is," he snapped. "And that's why I wanna--hold up. Military issue?"

The click of the gun sent a chill down his spine that also chilled his anger, and he mentally cursed himself for not having his own pistol on him. It was tucked away amongst his supplies back at camp, currently useless for lack of ammunition. Without it, however, it might be difficult to prove that what he was about to say wasn't a lie, and he knew he was toeing a dangerous line by arguing while a loaded weapon was aimed at him.

He hadn't lowered his hands or taken another step toward her, though, but neither had he backed down. Here's hoping she didn't get fed up and shoot.

"Military issue? Then you are Connlaothian," he pressed, relaxing visibly even as his mind chastised, Don't get too cozy, Sorin. You don't know why she left. Still, he couldn't help but feel hopeful, and the thought that she might be Connlaothian and military subdued some of that earlier anger. Finally he was on familiar ground. Finally he encountered another Connlaothian in all this savage, tainted land. "I...kinda thought so--it's the accent, too. What rank are you? You can lower your weapon, by the way. I'm a fucking Dragoon, former Lefteanant dóú."

Or was, anyway, before he deserted. He decided to leave both that and the fact that he was a Mordecai out, just in case she was here because she was a mage-sympathizer or something.

"Dragoon Eyme."

He was taking a chance here, but whatever. Wouldn't be the first time, wouldn't be the last, and he figured that since she was giving him the option to leave she didn't really want to shoot him.

[Anonymous]

Did he... did he just call her that?! No, there's no way that a man at gunpoint would be stupid enough to insult someone that has them at gunpoint-- but he had.This peeping tom that had just stumbled out of the weeds with all of the grace of a drunken cow called her, the woman he had been spying on, a cunt. A bit of incredulousness flashes through her eyes as she manages to keep a chokehold on her anger, not wanting to waste the bullet (or draw more attention to their position). When she speaks, her voice is ever-so-slightly confused... although he'd be able to hear just how close her temper was to taking control.

"Excuse me?"

Before he can backpedal any, he fixates on the origin of her pistol. Well no shit she's from Connlaoth - not only her slight accent, but the fact that she's holding that firearm without so much as a speck of discomfort... but he doesn't stop there. Oh no, he goes the extra mile and claims to be a Dragoon... not just a Dragoon, but one of her rank to boot! She scowls, her gaze narrowing significantly as the barrel of the gun moves up from the middle of his chest to as close to his eye-level as she can get it.

"How stupid do you think I am? Do you honestly think that I'd fall for that bullshit? I ought to shoot you where you stand for even trying to pass yourself off as a member of the military, you son-of-a-bitch!"

She takes a step forward, murderous rage starting to show itself in her eyes and her finger starting to depress the trigger... but then she stops, hesitating as something makes its way into her awareness. There's only one thing that could be the cause of the static-y feeling that sparked to life in the back of her mind, crackling along her senses and causing her vision to go vaguely fuzzy around his outline. it was just her luck that, this deep into the territory of magic-users, that she would encounter her first fellow Connlaothian this way... and one that was a total asshole, to boot. And if that wasn't bad enough, why, he was... he was...

He's a Mordecai.

Stifling an inward sigh, the blond lowers her pistol. Keeping it in her right hand should she need to raise it and fire (she's no idea why a Lefteanant dóú is out here without their usual retinue, much less a Mordecai!), she forces herself to take a deep breath or two of her own to calm down.

"...Dragoon Lefteanant dóú Lancaster, although that's not all I am. You can tell the rest from there on your own, can't you?"

If he couldn't feel what she was, then he was the shittiest Mordecai she had ever ran into... and considering how much of a bumbling idiot he had shown himself to be so far, she wouldn't be surprised. Arching a brow, she waits for him to answer.

[Rhindeer]

Sorin groaned loudly and repressed the urge to palm his forehead. Figures that she wouldn't believe him and out here in the woods, his pistol left behind at camp, its twin long since destroyed, and out of uniform in Adelan-style clothes...yeah, alright, he couldn't blame her much. But his accent was Connlaothian so he'd hoped that might be enough. He winced when she raised barrel raised up to eye level. Oookay then, the bitch was actually aiming now.

He opened his mouth, about ready to say something he would probably regret--something along the lines of, 'well, how do I know you didn't steal that pistol? That's no uniform I've ever seen!'--but then she took a step forward and all thoughts froze.

His breath hitched as his senses were flooded, familiarity tingling at the back of his mind like a mild electric shock. It had been too long since he'd been around another like him that at first he didn't know what to make of it and it disoriented him a little, far more powerful than he remembered--wait, that wasn't normal. He usually only recognized another Mordecai by a sort of strange, powerful sense of dejavu and just knowing--that was the only way he could describe it--but this was more like a small shock to his system.

It faded as his mind adjusted and felt like it lasted a lot longer than it actually did. Even as she spoke, it was a second later before the words registered and he gave a little belated jolt and reached up to rub at his forehead. Dragoon Lefteanant dóú Lancaster...

No fucking way.

"You're a Mordecai..." he said after a pause and rolled his shoulders to ease up some of the tension. At least she'd lowered her weapon; he supposed she could feel the same. "Well fuck me running."

It was then that the bushes behind them rustled and another man stepped out, if far more gracefully than Sorin had. On first glance he could have been Sorin's evil twin--dark skinned instead of light, short black hair instead of long blond hair, a wicked scar crossing over his right eye and another crossing his throat where Sorin had none visible. He could have easily passed for Adelan.

"Sorin, what're you doing? It's been nearly--" Cadmus stopped short, golden eyes fixed on the girl. Who had a pistol. Both she and Sorin looked tense, and Cadmus tore his gaze away so he could catch Sorin's eye. When he did, he scratched at his jaw. Casually, subtly, but it was one of the many signals they'd come up with between them. Mage? "Er. Everything okay here?"

Sorin let out a low breath and relaxed, then shook his head, both in response to the signal and the question. "I wouldn't say that but I'm at least bullet free. Cadmus, meet miss Lancaster. She's a Mordecai like me--imagine that, eh? Lancaster, meet Cadmus, he's my--ah, what the fuck, what's your first name? I'm not out here in the damned woods so I can be formal. I'm Sorin."

There. An attempt at civility and breaking the ice. He wasn't going to apologize for anything, though, but he imagined she wasn't going to either. Fair is fair.

[Anonymous]

Fuck him running, huh? Tch, she wouldn't fuck him if he were laying in the middle of the bed with his arms and legs bound to the bedposts!

...okay, so maybe she would if he were gagged. That wasn't exactly a topic of conversation right now, though. If anything, part of her mind is doing all it could to keep her from just reaching for his hand as she had done thousands of times before. That was the damnable part of muscle memory; sometimes, Azra had to be damn careful to not let her body just do as it would. The last thing she needed was this pervert get the wrong impression, after all. Thankfully, Cadmus emerges soon after; he doesn't evoke the same reaction in the back of her mind as Sorin, so she focuses her attention largely on him to keep that urge to link up to Sorin's power buried deep. The conversation of subtle gestures is lost on her, unsurprisingly, although she does at least answer Sorin's question since it's apparent that he's resigned himself to at least vaguely behave himself.

"...Azra. My first name is Azra."

The blond's lips tug vaguely toward a smile for a moment, although it's more directed at Cadmus than Sorin. The other Mordecai was on her shit-list, after all, and even if she was going to likely end up sticking around, she wasn't going to be quick to forgive... or to let him forget, for that matter. The pistol's hammer is gently eased back down before she places her firearm back in her pack, withdrawing her sarong-like skirt and tying it around her waist to help herself feel a smidgen less vulnerable to pervy looks. Since she was supposed to be behaving herself and being civil, Azra forces her thoughts away from how much of a low-down, dirty pervert Sorin was and to something that could be considered neutral.

"So, what brings you two this far out into the wilderness? I can't imagine that they'd let more'n one of us take a vacation at any given time."

...and in doing so, she likely opens up a whole new can of  flesh-eating worms. Hey, it's not like mindreading came with her specific set of abilities!

[Rhindeer]

Well, that was an awkward question.

So awkward, in fact, that he quickly forgot the twinge of disappointment he felt when she covered herself up with that skirt-thing. Sorin cleared his throat awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck, exchanging another look with Cadmus. Vacation, huh? No, she was right. He most certainly was not on vacation. By all accounts of the law he was a deserter. Fuck. He probably shouldn't have thrown his name and rank around so casually, but with her pistol in his face, her pretty legs in the corner of his vision, and curiosity getting the better of him he had spoken without thinking.

It wouldn't be the first nor the last time.

He shrugged and smiled. "I wouldn't call it a vacation. I'm on a mission out here." And that wasn't a lie, either. He was on a mission. It just wasn't sponsored by the military nor the government, but Azra didn't have to know that, at least not now. First he had to find out just what kind of Mordecai she was and if she shared his beliefs and values. "Cadmus here is a just a friend. He's not military or even Connlaothan. I met him a while back on my travels and we've been traveling together ever since."

There! That was nice and vague and answered her question, and look at that, he was being nice and civil, too, and she'd even put away her gun. It was easier to relax and talk when there wasn't the threat of bullet-in-the-face.

Sorin slipped his hands into his pockets and tilted his head, regarding her curiously. "What about you? I mean, of all the places I'd choose to vacation, this isn't exactly at the top of my list. Come to think of it..." He cast a look around the area. "Standing around and talking here isn't, either. Our camp's not far away. Wanna come?"

Cadmus frowned over at Sorin, and Sorin raised his eyebrows in a sort of "what?" look. Jeez. He wasn't going to try and pull anything on her. She was one of his people, a Connlaothan, a Mordecai. He respected her.

[Anonymous]

His long-winded explanation - or, at least, it sure seems that way to the Mordecai that was already getting tired of the sound of his voice - gets an expression of consideration to make its way onto Azra's features, her head canting slightly to the side as she weighed things in her mind. There was a lot of factors to consider, after all; for Sorin to be traveling with someone that wasn't even of Connlaothian descent was an oddity, although it was obvious that Cadmus wasn't the magical sort due to how he wasn't showing any signs of sickness. What made that little abnormality even weirder, though?

"You're on a mission?"

Another pause that would surely seem to last forever... but then she shrugs.

"Eh, can't say I'm surprised - not every move we make can be direct."

That right there should be a hint for Cadmus as to just why Sorin's so quick to try to integrate her into their little duo to form a trio - another Connlaothian with military training is bound to be useful, even moreso when one takes her being a Mordecai into account. So what if the blond male is easily distracted by a pretty face? There were some things that Sorin surely couldn't be distracted from. Since the darker-complected male surely cannot tell that Azra is precisely as advertised for himself, however... he would just need to trust Sorin's judgment until he and Azra could have their own conversation. Speaking of coversations that they would like to have with her; when they aska bout what she is doing out in the woods of Adela, something darkens in those green eyes - an odd sort of sadness, one would say, with a little bit of anger.

"I am on compassionate leave... and beyond that, I'd rather not talk about it."

Ahh, so it seems that the duo of males weren't the only ones with something to hide - although to be fair, just what the blond was hiding was something she would consider to be far, far worse than the desertion and mission that they were worried about. Grateful for the question that soon follows that possible foray into the realm of even more uncomfortable topics, the blond nods.

"Sure, why not? More eyes and more hands means less chance of ambush."

Cadmus' frown is noticed, as is the arch of Sorin's brow - easily able to figure out what it means, she cannot help but chuckle. Yes, she was a Connlaothian, a Mordecai... but most importantly? She had been more than willing to shoot to kill over something as minor as looking at her like a hunk of meat. Fellow countryman or not, Sorin surely had to know that she wouldn't hesitate to put a new hole in his ass if he tried to pull anything further.

[Rhindeer]

"Compassionate leave, eh?" Sorin quirked an eyebrow at that but didn't press the matter further. Something in her expression hinted it probably wasn't that simple, but hey, Sorin was lying, too. She didn't want to talk about it and he didn't fancy injury. They both won, and he was happy to abandon the topic when she agreed to come to their camp. Whatever she was hiding, it wasn't his business and he had no room to judge, all things considered. He was simply happy to have company that wasn't Cadmus.

He flashed Azra a grin and rolled his shoulders. "Yeah, right, ambush. Well, great! C'mon, then."

It would also be nice to be back amongst his weapons, too. Stupid, Sorin, stupid, wandering around the woods without even his dagger much less his sword, not that that would be any good against bullets. Oh well, lesson learned, and it wasn't like he'd expected to encounter anything beyond rabbits out here.

Turning his back on the girl, he waved a hand for her to follow and started to walk the way Cadmus had come, parting bushes and holding back a branch so Azra could pass without it whipping her like it had him. "It's just up here a ways. Cadmus, why don'tcha go on ahead and get a fire started, yeah?"

Cadmus, who was trailing the two--hey, just wanted to make sure they wouldn't kill each other or something--returned that request with a flat stare. "Because last I recall, I wasn't hired on as your servant," he answered, a spark of annoyance in his voice.

Sorin rolled his eyes. "Right. Anyway, this way..."

It wasn't a long walk to the camp, which was set up in a small, tight clearing. Only one tent was set up, the other still rolled up and set beside the other, and an area had been cleared of twigs and leaves with a shallow pit dug in the center and filled with a small pile of tinder. Not much of a camp at all, but they were always on the move and didn't need anything fancy. "Well, welcome to our home for the night," Sorin said. "Not much to it, but you're welcome to stay."

What could he say, he liked a girl with guts.