Falling Leaves [M]

[visualspice]

ooc: Tags to @Solaire

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The city was on fire- and it wasn't her fault.

It had been a day like every other day; cold, crisp and autumn. Winter winds threatened, causing each heavy breath she took to flutter out in white, wispy puffs. Earlier, she had been irritated by the chill, but now she was near gracious as it felt wonderful against her sweaty flesh, even if each breath felt like the cold was rubbing it raw.

Before this moment....
She had been shopping for a new dress. The one she wore now, in fact, and had been beaming over the joyous feeling of a new, silk and velvet dress that hugged her form in sweet teal colors and amplified her femininity and glittering color of her eyes. Hey- it wasn't her fault that she liked attention, even if it never got her much of any where.. not that she had been allowed.

On the bright side, after such an incursion, at least she was alive.
"Always the optimist," she muttered to herself, trembling as she remained within her top-sided cage, which during some point in her apparent kidnapping had toppled over a hill side, smashed a few good times against jutting rocks and thick, old trees before a heavy crack secured it teetering over the remains of the mountain side.

Her would be kidnappers were in a hurry, charged by a massive assault from the army as they raced away with her from the burning city. It was under siege- a terrible sight that smelled god awful as she coughed and wheezed, even a mile or so out of town as the wooden prison she was in bounced violently behind a horse drawn carriage. They took a turn too sharply, hurriedly trying to remain out of the view of the damn military who was hell bent in a chase-
And that was all she could remember. Dangerous turns, a sudden- was it an explosion? And then the jail cart she was in was thrown loose and....
It seemed it wasn't her lucky day.

A mountain side, she decided, as gravity tugged he dark hair over her shoulders and dangling down before her as she trembled with knees on the thick, wooden poles of the wheeled cage; that was definitely more cliff than hill. She swallowed thickly, careful not to move as her large eyes surveyed the damage and took in the very scary and very real detail of the situation she was in.

It didn't matter if she looked left or right, she was, for the most part- in deep shit. She drew in a breath and exhaled slowly.

"Okay..." she swallowed again, closing her lips as she tried to conjure any type of logical thought. "Well..." she shivered. Her entire body was trembling. "I'm alive.. at least.."
.. For now. She shivered when she heard the wooden cage creak.

Her eyes moved around to survey just what happened. The fall, it seemed, dented only the part of the damn cage that teetered over a massive tree, that jutted out from an old rock sunk deep and thickly into the earth. She attempted to move, just to see how sturdy she was from resuming a fall back to her doom. When she attempted to move her hand- even briefly, she winced and shot her gaze leftward to see a large, snapped in half piece of wood jutting out of her arm-
and her arm, was coated thickly in her blood, fresh and dirtied from the fall.

She grit her teeth and swore between them. Lady like talk could take a hike, now that she knew she had a gruesome injury, she continued swearing a few more times before checking the rest of herself over. It seemed her dress tore and there was blood here or there, but thankfully no other injuries except her arm.

"Of course on the day I get a new dress," she muttered.

Sighing, she swiped at something that tickled at her face and froze-
the hand that just wiped her face was now coated in blood.
A. Lot. Of. Blood.

She released a trembling breath, that came out in a long stream of fluttering white autumn breath. She swallowed thickly again and closed her eyes, now feeling the pain seering across her skull.

"Well, since the fall didn't kill me," she told herself cheerfully through a trembling, chilled breath. "The bleeding most definitely will." She laughed in spite of it all, an empty but desperate sound. "At least I'll die in a new dress."

But then she heard something- something stirring above her. She went still, and then goosebumps raced down her skin.

"You have got to be kidding me."
Up above her... she could hear them. Them. Her would be kidnappers or whatever!

'The cage is hanging off the cliff!' she heard one of them call.
'We must retrieve her before the army finds us!' another hissed.

She grit her teeth, her hands shaking as she tried to hold in a breath, heart beating rapidly as she tried to think of what to do...
When a rope dropped down beside her from above.

'You've got to be kidding me!' she thought, eyes following the dangling rope, all the way, way, way up to the top of the cliffside road.

Turning away, she peered over at the door to her cage. It was bent, godawfully bent, but perhaps it had come unlocked during her fall?
Testing each crawled step, she made her way over towards it and fussed about-
"Really!? The locks are jammed?"
She gave an angered kick to the door and yelped when the entire cage she was in teetered. And Hyathia D'al Asarot went very, very still- a hand clasping over her lips to keep herself from shouting again.

She heard their voices carrying from up above.

"Hear that?" The men were shushing.
"Sounds like the girl is alive."

[Hyacinthus]

As the wintery-gray skies blackened with smoke across the near-surrounding plains of Sirantil Valley, the drowning cries of war-- both valorous and desperate, rang out into the distant air. They married and blended into a cacophony of voices, none more significant than the other, each little more than a whisper on the wind the further from the capital. The panicked dispersing of commoners and farmers eager to escape the chaos that had taken hold of the capitol echoed along the roads leading to and from the city. The bitter cold, too, was fitting-- it matched the dread one had to assume beset every soul struggling to make sense of the turmoil that had gripped the lands they loved so easily. It nipped and bit at the skin, as if tearing away man's only barrier 'twixt himself and the harsh reality of the world.

Good ol' Connlaoth!

Erin Shire, son of no noble, heritor of no land, master of no man and answerer to few save his doting parents and his contractors, had grown accustomed to the cold. Connlaoth was his homeland, after all, and though he'd traveled the four corners of Le'Raana in search of fame and fortune (to varying degrees of failure), never did he tire of the brisk breeze upon his armor-clad body... even if it was only because it got really hot and clammy in his 'glorified tin can', as guildmates of the past had referenced it. Travelling atop a hearty, tan-hide steed he'd been graciously loaned by the guild upon his departure from Falkenrath, The Pheonix couldn't help but enjoy his trek through the somewhat unfamiliar lands of another duchy. He'd passed Vythe in years past, on his way in or out of the kingdom, but never had he come so close as the trails leading to it's outer walls. Why now, one might wonder then? Why ever?

"I should've had them write step-by-step directions out..." The armor-clad warrior mused off-handedly as he reached into the pouch on the side of his horse's saddle, and pulled forth what appeared to be a scrolled map; A rather flimsy one, no less, but one that bore Falkenrath's adventurer guild's seal. Yes, in the middle of a literal civil war, such requests still came in-- more frequently than in times of peace it seemed, as Erin hadn't left the kingdom in well over a month now-- no shortage of work in the homeland, from taking down small groups of criminals and highwaymen to hunting wild beasts along the countryside that had been threatening trade routes. All work for any duke's armed guard and/or patrol, you might think, yet with the chaos within Connlaoth it seemed everyone was short handed. Only seemed right that Erin would pick up a couple extra contracts here and there to help out where he could.

Today, for example, he'd been asked to seek out and subdue a particularly dangerous primal mage who'd escaped imprisonment during the outbreak of chaos in Vythe. The Duke's men were already particularly busy with the turmoil on their hands as was without having to worry about magic destroying the capital from within as well. Thus, Erin-- particularly suited for 'dealing with' mages, took on the job and made his way from his home on the outskirts of Falkenrath to Vythe, with little more than a contract and a map to the capital in hand. But boy... boy oh boy, was Erin bad at following maps. And, really, who could blame him? It wasn't even a cartographer's map-- it was hand drawn (though admittedly well-drawn), on scroll paper! Had he not thought to keep it safely tucked away in a leather pouch, half the thing would've likely faded clean from the parchment in the snow! That aside, it had no legend on it-- who draws out a map with no legend!? He may as well have been riding blind, for as much sense as he could make of it. And ride blind he did-- hardly relying on the 'directions' he'd been given, and still managing to make his way near the capital.

He rounded yet another mountainside, putting the map away, reaffirmed in his ways, before the monotony of the ride was interrupted by far sharper, clearer voices. Erin raised an eyebrow and pulled at the reins of his steed to come to a stop before dismounting himself. Some few meters ahead of him were what appeared to be the remains of a caravan of... 'traders', perhaps? At a glance, it appeared that in their journey seemingly out of the capital, they'd run into some trouble and met the edge of a cliffside. How fast were they going...? The armor they were clad in definitely didn't tell the story of farmers or commonfolk, escaping the chaos, and... did he by chance spy a blade one of them? Well hell, who wouldn't be interested? Bemused as ever, Erin bade his horse to wait for him, a safe 9-ish meters away, before he approached on his own-- Vanagandr in tow, of course.

"Hello, friends! Looks like you could use a bit of a hand!" He kindly and warmly called out, his swift stride very quickly (and unnervingly) closing the gap on the 'traders'. They had all begun to pool around the edge of the cliff-- Erin could only assume that the 'wares' that they'd been traveling with had gone over, but didn't have a good enough look. Not yet, anyway. One of the 'traders'-- furthest from the group, half-mindedly heard Erin's voice, but waved him off-- too preoccupied with their current situation to fully grasp who-- or what-- he was speaking to.

"Who? Hey, bugger off, you-- Ansgar's flamin' ass, the hell are you!?"

Erin couldn't blame the poor guy, who finally turned to face him and practically emptied his bowls, falling over onto the ground. Who wouldn't be a little nervous at the sight of a man dressed neck to two in blood-red steel, a massive battle axe that looked like the head of a demon slung over his shoulder like a plaything? The man composed himself quickly enough, picking himself up and motioning to a couple of the other 'traders' who'd heard him yell in the first place. "Wh-who are you? Are you one of the Grand Duke's men?" One such man quickly approached and asked, not so outwardly shaken as the first fellow, but equally concerning.

"Me? No, no-- I'm just passing through. Looked like you could use a bit of help? Did you lose your luggage over the cliffside?" Erin's voice was rather even, but as he spoke, it seemed as though he found himself further and further struggling with keeping the amused grin at the corners of his lips from spreading any further than it already had. The two men, now joined by a nosy third and an approaching fourth (whom Erin couldn't help but notice had already begun to slide his hand toward the dagger on his waist), looked between themselves uncertainly, like children who'd been caught stealing bread. The grin became harder, and harder still, to resist. "...Ah, w-we, ah, yes! We... lost some luggage on the bend-- Just dropped a rope down to... collect it! We, uh, we'll be fine on our own, though, we just, ah--" The man attempted to explain, only to, unexpectedly, be interrupted... by a snort. A snort, which was followed by barely contained chuckle, before giving way to a great and hearty laugh-- the laughter of a man amused beyond words. It wasn't an evil, condescending or even arrogant laugh-- Erin's echoing voice carried nothing but a sense of helpless levity that washed uneasily over the four 'traders' gather before him.

And then, in an instant, like the passing of heartbeat, four traders became three.

None of the men, save Erin, were even able to conceive what had happened; It was so incredulous to believe that they would've rather convinced themselves that their eyes hadn't seen what they clearly did. And yet, the first 'trader's' head, which flew through the air for a few moments, deftly landed at the feet of the approaching fourth, rolling to meet the toe of his boot with a light thud. Erin, who's face now somewhat matched the blood-red colour of his armor, lifted his battleaxe back over his shoulder and rested it there again, his laughter finally subsiding. And as his mirth did fade, so too did an unnervingly overwhelming sense of fear and dread fill the others. With a whimsical, confident look in his eyes, Erin spoke once more. "Sorry, sorry. I figured, we were going to fight anyway-- might as well take the first blow, right?"

"...K... K-kill him! Kill the bastard!!!"

What could be heard over the edge of the cliff, one might wonder? Those voices that moments earlier sought to collect the noblewoman now stirred to wrath. A collection of battle cries could be heard... followed by the ever-so-sickening consequence of steel rending flesh and bone, of swords and bodies alike falling to the ground. Of pained screams and fearful please for life-- snuffed into silence moments later. And then, some 2 minutes after the uproar... dead silence. A single heavy set of footsteps crunched the earth as they approached the edge of the cliff... and then the jilting of the rope that'd been thrown down some time earlier. It shifted, seemingly of it's own accord, as whomever stood above manipulated it. And at last, the sound of metal running roughly against rope as from above, the figure of a man in crimson armor descended to meet the cage that'd fallen to it's near-doom... and the wounded lass within. "Figured," Erin stated to himself as he tightened his grip on the rope, stopping his descent about shoulder-level with the cage's doorway. He looked a bit like some sort of great war hero... or mythical figure.

"Hey there! My name's Erin. You'll probably wanna brace yourself on something for a second." Erin, unfortunately, was neither of those things. He wasn't even particularly smart. So, in classic Erin fashion, the man drew his great battleaxe with his free hand, and with a great swing, sundered the door of the cage straight off of it's hinges-- in turn causing no shortage of swaying to the cage, which already seemed more than ready to fall from it's saving grace of a ledge at any moment. As what remained of the door fell to the base of the mountain below with so many rattles and clanks down the side of the cliff, Erin holstered his weapon of apparent mass destruction and reached out to the sole inhabitant of the cage, the same confident smile on his face as ever.

"Think you can get out on your own? That cage is probably tumbling down if I hop in there."

[visualspice]

Perhaps she hadn't overheard the entire conversation above as she was too concerned with trying to figure a way out, while the men seemed interested in finding their way down to her. So when Erin showed up, she flinched back- noting the armor, but none she recognized upon him as she stumbled into a defensive crouch.

She didn't quite catch all of his words, but when the door open- she shrieked and jerked back away from the door and panicked, clinging to the sudden rocking wooden cell until it creaked to a halt. Her eyes were wide as she peered over at Erin, uncertain about him and this situation. But the door, it was open.

"Who.. who are you? And what do you want?"
She didn't notice any symbols on him depicting that he was with the Grand Duke. Was he a rebel? Another person hired with the cities attackers?

[Hyacinthus]

"...Ooooh-- right, right, fair questions. Good questions." Despite a less than welcoming reception, Erin maintained the proverbial wind in his sails in response to the reaction he received from the woman in the cage. And, honestly, in hindsight? Probably was his own fault. Guy swoops in out of nowhere and starts telling you what to do, you're injured and--more importantly-- very capable of dying if you make the wrong move? Of course she'd be apprehensive. Sometimes he tended to forget how very... guarded, normal people could be. Especially given his own unique circumstances allowed him to be as defenseless as he so chose to be (and warranted the heavy armor as a result).

Still, he wasn't sure how he felt about the cage that this young lady was in-- it teetered and swayed precariously with every moment--the very breeze of the chilled northern air seeming to rock it at will, if it pushed hard enough. It certainly wouldn't do for her to stay in there while he told her about his backstory. He needed to think quickly. He needed to take action! And as the two braincells in his head (one in the left hemisphere, one in the right) finally linked together on this, Erin came up with the perfect idea. 

"Don't worry, I'm an adventurer from Falkenrath-- and I have a plan to save you! I'll just... One sec..." This plan required some dexterity, admittedly, but dexterity was Erin's middle name-- He took the remaining length of the rope into his free hand, and, for whatever reason, began to swing. On the rope. Over the edge of the cliff. If he was suicidal, he certainly didn't look like it-- the self-confident look in his eyes told the story of a man who had done this hundreds of times, and was still here to tell the tale. Back and forth he rocked, gaining momentum on the rope as he did so, as well as distance in kind. Before long, his bounds swung wide enough to cover the gap in the distance between himself and the door to the cage... and with one final swing and a 'umph' of effort, Erin leapt forth into the doorway of the wooden cage, landing squarely inside on the precarious beams... right at the edge of the cage. "There-- now you can just come over to me, and--" He began, quite proud of his genius, before he began to realize what the lady in the cell likely concluded the moment he landed.

Gravity was not a huge fan of this plan.

The cage had been swaying in the wind, accommodating the noblewoman's movements prior, but it now had to deal with an steel-clad man some 3-4 times her weight in full, and deal it did-- The cage now rapidly shifted towards Erin's side, the beginnings of losing it's balancing act taking effect as the 'floor' quickly began to become the 'wall', in a sense. Physically, visually, the warrior seemed every bit as confident in his genius plan as he did when he landed. Mentally, however, Erin couldn't help but facepalm. 'Next time I resurrect, I'm really going to need the girls at the guild to teach me math. This can't keep happening,' He chided himself, surprisingly (or at least to him, unsurprisingly) accepting of the situation at hand.

[visualspice]

For the life of her, Hyathia could NOT believe what this strange armored knight intended to do.
"No, don't do that! Why are you swinging from the rope!?" How could it possibly hold his weight? But swing he did, and as his intentions dawned on her she paled.

"No! No!" She waved her arms. "D-d-don't jump!"

But it was too late. The heavy man landed and the cage rocked up like a see saw and she found herself slipping down the barred side his way until her arm, wounded of course, slipped through a cracked opening and got stuck between an awkward jutting rock prrssed agaibst the cage and... she let out a wail as her injured arm was forced to hold onto her weight as her legs kicked frantically.

[Hyacinthus]

Admittedly, Erin wasn't sure what surprised him more-- That the wooden cage in which both he and the wounded maiden-- somehow-- still stood in hadn't swayed enough under his own weight to begin it's tumultuous descent down the side of mountain upon which it was caught, or that the reason it held barely to the balance was due to the girl's evermore-unfortunate circumstances. Showing a little tact for once in his life, Erin whistled, mentally; His eyes once, twice over the woman's wood-pierced arm, as if trying to discern the odds. 'And I thought I was unlucky,' he remarked to himself, watching the girl cry and flail, but not moving-- at least not yet. He'd given pause to the thought of death for a few moments, humored and humbled by the sight before him.

If it were any other part of Le'Ranna, he'd tell her to relax, stop fidgeting; That he'd free her in a bit, and take her to a creation mage that he knew, real wizard of a guy, and have her patched up good as new. Oh Connlaoth... only Connlaoth. "Alllllllllright. So, hear me out; First plan, probably wasn't a great one, but we're still alive-- counts for something, right?" Erin wasn't particularly good with... whatever one might call this situation. Really, he was only good with adventuring, and the glory by combat that came from it. With his already lacking mental emphasis on death, he found he often didn't take situations nearly as seriously as he should-- For example... jumping into a precariously-hanging wooden cage. "Maybe I just chop the entire cage apart... Try to catch you in the falling rubble. Gotta say, this is probably the strangest life-saving situation I've ever been in," He remarked, this time out loud, as he grabbed for his battle axe, unsheathing it as if genuinely considering the idea of sending them both tumbling down the hillside alongside tons of wooden debris.

[visualspice]

Hyathia paled at his words.
"Wh..what!?" She yelped. "N-no, no, no..." he couldn't be serious! "Are.. "she winced from the pain where she dangled from her wrenched arm. "Are you trying to kill us?"
Her eyes widened on the axe. She let out a yelp. "Don't!"

[Hyacinthus]

Though likely not the most encouraging thing that the maiden could've been expecting as a response, Erin could not help but let out quite a mighty laugh in response to the woman's pleas for mercy. "Merely an adventurer's joke," he managed to convey in between full-bodied bouts of laughter, apparently quite pleased with himself. True, his unique circumstances often left him quite disassociated with the plight of folk who valued their lives. He valued his own as well, but had lost it so many times by now that he could part with it at a moment's notice and be accepting of the circumstances.

"You needn't worry that much. My battle axe weighs quite a bit on it's own; If I set it down here, I should be able to..." He began, looking to the 'floor' of the wooden cage and finding a convenient-enough spot; splintered wood, along the ridges of which he was able to semi-carefully wedge Vanagandr's metal into the fractured boards of the cage on his side. It seemed sturdy enough, at least, to not collapse under the weight of the massive axe, but only time would tell, Erin supposed. "...There we go, so now..." He continued, turning back towards the injured and indignant woman and taking a single step... then another. Each time, he tested the weight of his position fairly firmly, before taking another. "Alright; let's try this again," He spoke, as the distribution of weight within the cage began to even out with each step. "Free your arm, and come to me. Quickly, if it's all the same to you; probably don't want to let that wound of yours fester for too long, after all." Connlaoth's great duchies had some of the science and medicines Le'Raana had to offer, but all of the medicine in the world wouldn't be able to fix up that arm if it were to get a serious infection. Erin, who had no qualms about the use of magic in all of its forms, would have no problem crossing the borders of the kingdom and getting help; But lifelong Connlaothians could be a lot less... agreeable, sometimes.

[visualspice]

Hyathia paled, then blanched at the laughter. She looked at him, wide eyed. Was he a madman? Of course she'd be rescued by someone crazy! But as she observed his actions, she held her breath at each rickety teeter and groan of the wooden cage.

By the time he was over to her side,  she was in tears, and at his suggestion to 'free' herself, those welling tears broke and streamed hotly down her face. Her mind was in a whirl, panic still in control.

She shook her head.
"I.. I can't!" She attempted to move her arm and yelped in pain. "I think it's stuck!" She turned to confirm. The bars were bowed inward, her arm having slid into them and with the force if her tumble, and confirmed her fear as she trembled,  "I'm stuck!"

[Hyacinthus]

"Can't, or won't?" Erin's slow yet steady stride stopped just short of the fallen lass, taking a closer look at her bewildered and, admittedly somewhat bemusing situation. She was fine; Her wounded arm had lodged itself awkwardly into a set of the cage's bars, but she could've easily pulled her arm free by now had she simply removed that jutting bit of wood from her body. 'Fear makes fools out of all of us,' Erin reminded himself as he debated the frantic girl's situation. Fear of pain, in this case; a few moments of discomfort were all Erin could see as standing between her freedom and her inevitable death. What to do, what to do... What would his teacher have done?

'A kind man is a good person; A brave man is a great hero.' Erin had that beaten into his skull so many times growing up that he practically muttered it in his sleep. What did it mean? Well...

"Okay. Don't hate me too much, yeah?" He said with a confident smile, before closing the remaining gap between himself and the maiden. The cage shifted ever so slightly, a strong breeze causing it to sway in an unnatural way, reminding Erin how time-sensitive this situation was. He kneeled down at her side, eyeing the arm that's gotten caught in the cage's bars. And, regardless of plight or plea from the woman, he reached down in between those bars to where her injured arm lie locked in place, grasped for the splintered wood lodged into it, and roughly pulled it free, ripping it out of her almost off-handedly. Never did his expression change; the entire time, the same confident, "things will work out" smile on his lips. "Alright— now pull your arm out. If you can't manage that even now, I might have to just chop it off instead." It was an idle threat— one he didn't intend on following through with, but was more than capable of doing so. He stood once more, crossing his arms and looking down to the entrapped woman. "Sooner you're up, sooner we can get back to safety, after all; what's a little pain for your life?"

[visualspice]

As the man approached, smiling of all things, she went wide eyed again, and even more so as he reached toward her arm.
"What.. what do you think you're doing-Aaaaaahhhh!" Wrenching the sharp piece of wood from her arm caused her to scream out as she saw stars of pain. But her arm managed to slide once the wood was gone and suddenly she was in a panic, legs kicking frantically into the man's chest before she awkwardly fell while clutching her injured arm...
And the cage rocked forward...the wooden pieces cracking,  as was the tree supporting it.

And.. then it moved, beginning to teeter forward as more slow lurching cracks from the tree branches began to buckle like breaking ice on a pond.

Hyathia paled,  body stiffening as the cage now leaned precariously on a corner- more bars threatening to bend from the weight and more of the branch below them groaned on protest. She was breathing insanely fast, heart racing at the realization...
They
Were
Going
To
Die.

[Hyacinthus]

Another bout of laughter erupted from Erin's crimson armor-clad form as the woman fretted and fought against him, doing more harm to herself in the process than anything else. "Good! You've still got some fight in you. I was a little worried you'd given up on yourself." He noted rather proudly, as if praising a child, or athlete in training. Her morbid cries and distress met his unnervingly unwavering confidence and coolheadedness head-on, in the form of a couple kicks; with so little trained force behind them, the man felt little more than taps on his heavy platemail. He's rather that than the alternative, anyway.

His laughter was cut short, however, by the sudden undue shift of the cage beneath and around them. Erin's eyes shifted back towards the entrance, spying Vanagandr still rooted in place; his counter-weight hadn't failed them... so the Roots of the fern below them must have instead. Shame... The cage offered a nice view of the horizon, really. "Times up, it seems," He noted aloud, before turning to walk away from the woman, each step measured even now as the tree failed beneath them. Hazardous footing indeed; yet Erin had traversed worse, under worse circumstances, and was able to fairly quickly make his way to his axe, only hastening the cage's inevitable fall. "Now, let's try this again."

Just beyond the cage's door lie the rope Erin used to enter; the same rope the brigands had planned to use to secure their "prize" earlier. "When I was a kid, I had a tough 'teacher' who said something along the lines of... 'Men and leaves fall to nurture the land for the sake of the strong'. Made no sense back then... but I wonder which one you are?" Having collected vanagandr, Erin looked back at the panic stricken woman with a smile, and exited the cage once more with a light leap; a leap which, "light" as it may have been to Erin, was all the wooden prison of impending death needed to cause the wood beneath to begin fully giving way in earnest. The last fraying splinters of the tree below snapping away, the adventurer watched on from relative safety as he gave what he was ready to assume would be his last chance to the girl, reaching a single hand out.

"Come. Jump, or fall."

[visualspice]

Terrified as she was, her face contorted at his words.
Was he just going to leave her there?! And then he gave her the ultimatum,  'Jump or fall.'

Her mind was in a whirl, the tree about to give way..she closed her eyes in attempts to swallow back her paralyzing fear.

Jump. She could do this. It was jump or die.

So she drew in a breath, mustered up her courage ...
And jumped.

Except it was too late. The cage was giving way as she moved, and though momentum might have carried her further-
Her foot caught on the uneven ground and sge tumbled forward with a scream, landing against the cage side as the entire thing cracked and fell away, carrying her towards the bottom of the cliff.

[Hyacinthus]

The smile on Erin's face widened from a confident grin to a thoroughly entertained, greatly impressed toothy grin as the man watched the would-be damsel find her nerve in the face of certain death. Good! He was right after all-- she still had some fight left in her. He was fairly sure she just needed proper motivation to ignite it-- shame, though, that said motivation came at the cost of her life. "Ha! What an amusement you are, kid!" He called after the girl as she descended, a frightened scream piercing the cold silence of the mountainside the whole way down.

'Well, time to get to it,' he told himself, before releasing his own grip on the rope holding up his weight, and plummeting down the side of the mountain as well. His azure cape billowed in the striking winds as he practically flew-- or at least, fell with style-- towards the woman below him; His aerodynamic dive, plated armor and battle axe weighting him down enough to increase the speed he'd been falling, compared to her. A few moments into the fall, he'd practically caught up to her, just short of her and the debris of the cage shattering around her. It would've been a great moment for a joke, if the ground below wasn't so quickly approaching. Instead, Erin merely reached out a metal-plated hand, one last time; His final real attempt at saving the girl's life. Even in this most dire of circumstances, his confidence seemed unshaken, as if he knew everything would be alright somehow-- or perhaps he was just insane. "So you chose to fall?"

[visualspice]

As she fell, her arms desperately flailed about, reaching out into whatever hopelessness lay before her- her body forced that way (not that she'd choose to look at the oncoming ground). But before she even had a chance to register exactly what was going on- through the fog of her fall came a man, blue cape billowing behind him like some champion rushing into the field of battle. Her throat, already in her throat, seemed to threaten to spill clean out of her mouth as her screams choked away and she desperately reached out to seize the outstretched hand, clinging to it- then suddenly, very desperately, onto the falling man beside her as her brain rattled at the comprehension of his words.

"Choose to fall!?" the young woman croaked. How had any of this been a choice!?

[Hyacinthus]

"Don't tell me you're just unnaturally clumsy! Hahaha!" Erin couldn't help but tease this lass a bit-- he'd not met someone that the fates seemed to hate nearly as much as this one in a while! As the woman's wild grasps for any port in the storm that was her impending death found purchase on Erin's armored gauntlet, followed by the rest of his armor, the young man broke his falling posture-- shifting mid-air with an impressive show of core strength to go from a dive to falling feet-first. His cape billowed wildly in response, flapping about above his head and shoulders, and accentuations of his eyes and jawline became clearer as his hair flung itself upward from the gravity and speed of the fall.

Fun as it all was, the ground below approacheth-- And with it, a sudden stop for both of them if he didn't do something quickly. "Brace yourself," He warned the noblewoman, before doing his own part in gripping her tight to him by her waist, trying to minimize the shock of what was about to happen as much as he could. And so, with his axe-occupied hand, Erin loosened his grip enough to allow the hilt of vanagandr to slide-- Increasing the range of the weapon in so doing, before once more displaying impressive core strength by swinging the axe with all the force he could muster into the side of the mountain-- quite literally cleaving through the rock side. The effect? A sudden and unceremonious lurch of forces against gravity as Erin and his ward almost immediately decreased drastically in fall speed, the axe slowing the way for them whilst leaving a terrible gash in the side of the mountain face. Erin gritted his teeth to avoid wincing-- This would've been child's play, or a cool stunt alone, but with the extra weight of another body, he felt his swinging arm strain under the combined pull. Nevertheless, as they approached the valley floor, it was at a far, far more survivable speed than prior, and with an unnatural 'thud' of rock and metal, the two smashed into the ground below, the young man's joints shuddering at the sudden impact... but still intact. Sweat dripped from his brow as he released both the axe and the woman in his possession, his arms crying out in relief. "How was that-- still alive?" He asked a bit breathily, but otherwise sporting his trademark confident smile.

[visualspice]

Naturally clumsy!? What sort of rescuer was this? She had to wonder if he was mentally unwell, although she supposed soldiers and knights and fighters and things had to have a totally different mind set than her own- after all, she felt more like a back room decoration, not exactly flaunted but could be.

At his warning, she braved herself, burying her face desperately against so that the scent if his sweat and the metallicness of his armor plowed heavily against her senses as they mixed with the wild whipping smells of the fall. And the jostling pressure of it all sent her dark hair to flutter wildly, tickling and would have threatened to stick to the sweat of him and his armor were the forces of the wind and fall not so great.

The impact came, hard, and she felt it through him, through herself as his body took most of the impact, though not all, as the shared force jolted through her, snapping her body like the end of a whip before she felt the numbness of the after math, then nothing at all. With the support of his arms no longer there, Hyathia felt her legs, or rather maybe her body forgot how to use them , as she dropped into the rough rocks and foliage of the ground.

She hadn't fallen completely over, her body rigid and bent forward, too much in shock to even shake.  She wasn't even sure what his words were when he spoke as she was still stuck in the aftermath reality of the fall.

[Hyacinthus]

It took a few moments of labored breaths, but before long, Erin was back to his feet once more, rolling his shoulders slowly and thoroughly as his body slowly began to untense. He was fine-- he wasn't really worried about himself, anyway. No, his eyes were primarily focused on the young woman who'd likely just experienced near-death a solid 4-5 times in the past few minutes. For Erin, it was quite normal-- adventurer extraordinaire aside, Erin didn't have the mental block of experiencing near-death, considering the fact that he was quite used to literal death at this point. Her? He'd asked after her, but she hadn't so much as budged; She almost seemed in catatonic shock. He supposed the cold wasn't doing much for her either, given her choice of clothing.

"Come now; You're still alive. For now, anyway-- Nasty couple blows you took, at some point." Reaching over his shoulder, Erin unclasped a fastening on his plate armor after a little bit of fiddling. A few moments later, he did the same with the opposite shoulder, and with them released, and a firm tug from his clawed gauntlets, Erin's striking blue cape came a-loose from his armor, fluttering in his right hand now. His gaze turning to the young woman, he took the cape firmly by the middle of it's length and with a light underhanded toss, the bundle of heavy fabric went flying at the noblewoman-- like to plop her right in the face if she didn't have the wherewithal to catch it. "Cover yourself up a bit-- you won't survive a walk back to the Duchy dressed like that. Wipe a bit of that blood off of your head too; Ought to see if you're still bleeding out." Erin practically commanded, turning away to go and retrieve his axe. Vanagandr, despite the hell it was just put through, seemed very much in tact and as sharp as ever. "That's a good battleaxe," He jokingly praised his weapon of choice, pulling it from the ground it'd crashed into with a audible 'thuck'.

[visualspice]

She had been wearing a very lovely dress, brand new teal color velvets and glittering pearls once decorated here or there about the damask style accented sleeves, which puffed out into silken sleeves that then cuffed at the wrists. The cut was low, revealing healthy feminity and allowing for ample pearls to be strung across her neck.

Now everything was askew, from dress to hair- forget her shoes, one having been lost in the fall. They were expensive shoes too. Just purchased the week prior. Now mud stains and blood, tears and rips had marred the ones exquisite dress. Her lip was bleeding, lower one jutting out and swollen from the cut, and a smear of blood from a cut upon her head lined down her face to throat, now drying but the wound still glittered in the daylight. Her hair had also once been done up fancily, once elegant and hooped into pillows upon her head now lay undone and frayed, pieces sticking to the sweat and blood on her flesh and bodice alike, while large, bright eyes remained wide and her skin, ghostly pale beneath all of the bruising.

And she was shivering. Half a sleeve was missing, her skirts, thankfully layered, were still held modestly together, but her bodice threatened to have it's laces snap. Even still, somehow she remained as pretty as her mother. All the good her looks would do for her.

She was broken from her shock the moment the cape fell heavily around her shoulders, and she naturally clung to it and held it against her body with tight , white knuckled fists.
Her mind was still in disarray but at the mention of blood, she stiffened and only then realized there was a large stinging pain coming from her head- never mind the pain from her possible broken arm and gash there.

She reached up a hand and gingerly touched it with a wince, and when she retracted her fingers and saw the blood, her eyes widened and it seemed she was about to go into shock again.

[Hyacinthus]

"Right, then." With a mighty swing of his axe, Erin tested the handle for faults or loosened, fraying material; As he expected, Vanagandr was indeed well within fighting form, just as sharp and raring to cut down the next mage it came across as ever. This brought a smile to his face--a gentler one, at least; Not the 'cutting down mages' bit, but the sheer thought of how much he and that axe had been through together, thus far. He remembered the moment of the Gravesmiths of Fell landed their final hammering blow on it's cursed-red steel edge. He remembered the battle of Southern Essyrn, where it mowed down a Lich's undead greater sandworm. He remembered dying, many, many times, and battling his way back through monster-infested forests and trap-filled caves to retrieve it (and his armor). Good memories; Tales of heroism, bravery, tragedy and loss. He remembered it all.

A strong wind returned him to his senses, and with his stamina near-fully restored, he put the battleaxe away on it's holster on his back, and turned to walk in the direction of the maiden once more. He'd taken a proper look at her, on his way towards her; Enough to see the relative extent of her injuries. She was battered, and weakened for certain; The injury to her arm, and the one to her head, being only two of the more outwardly visible ones. Maker only knew what was going on inside of her-- physically, or psychologically. She needed rest, a great medic, and probably a couple glasses of ale... but she'd live. If she could survive that fall, she could survive just about the rest of what was left of her day. Thus, that spared glance-over aside, after reaching the young lady, Erin walked right past her, turning his attention instead to the cliff above, from which they'd just fallen.

"No ledges, no trail up the side... Guess I'm walking around to the other end. Gotta get my horse... my map." He muttered to himself, mentally mapping out the fastest way around the side of the mountain to get himself back on track. Further down the cliffside he was fairly certain he could see signs of man-made walking paths leading upward... Perhaps that was his path back to the capital. One could only hope, anyway.