In Search of Redemption — Legacy Forums

Re: In Search of Redemption

#41

Daios took the sword carefully, then stayed to the back of the other two. He could use a sword, a little, enough that he felt safer with it. When Silas motioned to stop, he halted, listening. The other goblins were asleep; he knew that sound well enough. He still didn't understand, really, why they were hunting the goblins in their own lair, but he knew things were different here. Maybe at home, the goblins weren't a threat because they were scared of the Oligarchs. Everyone else was.

He couldn't quite tell how many there were, the echoes were bad. If they woke up, it could be bad. But surely, with the element of surprise, they'd be okay. It looked like the way they'd come in was the only one, that could help too maybe.

Re: In Search of Redemption

#42

"Ok kids, here's the plan" Silas murmured, keeping his voice from echoing "Daios, you stay back here, you look exhausted and the torch will likely wake them up. If they do wake up, come in swinging or magic something at them, ok?" He turned to Alton "I'm impressed. You've stopped trying to make me deaf with your chatter and can be pretty damn good in fight. Lets see you keep your feet quiet too so we can just whack their heads off and see what they've got back here, eh?"
He turned back to Daios "If anything happens and you need help, yell. There can't be a whole lot, cave's too small. It's easier to keep them asleep though."
He motioned them both to silence, and for Alton to follow, and set off towards where he thought the sound was coming from. Soon enough, in the little light that drifted in, 2 lumps were fuzzily outlined on the floor. He motioned Alton to the smaller and looked at the larger.
It was hideous, and not like any goblin he had seen before. It was bigger, uglier, and smelled worse. He shrugged, and slashed at its neck. Vile smelling, hot blood splashed on him, and his sword was mostly stuck about halfway in its shoulder. Silas trying to pull it out with it bellowing and flailing at him while Alton ran back over, having easily dispatched the other one, a regular goblin.
"The hell is that?" Alton said, lending a foot and stomping on its face as Silas finally tugged his sword free and plunged it into the things chest, its arms slowing and finally dropping to the floor.

Re: In Search of Redemption

#43

Daios listened. If there were any other goblins in the cavern, the yelling would have brought them on the run. But he didn't hear anything coming. He wasn't too far away from one of the pools of water, and something about it caught his attention. He studied it for a moment, trying to find out what was different. Then he realized it was that the ceiling was dry above it. In every cave he'd been in, pools of water had one of two sources. Either the water dripped from the stone above, or it came from under. He held the torch out, looking down into the water curiously. The water was very clear, and he could see down to the bottom. And it looked like there was a tunnel under the water, leading further back into the cave. It looked big enough that they could fit, if they wanted to.

Sometimes, Daios was too curious for his own good, but he wasn't stupid. He slipped back to where Silas and Alton were. "Something. Found tunnel, maybe leads somewhere. Have to swim if go look." He did want to go look, but if the others didn't, he wouldn't. It would be a bad idea to split up now, there could be something unpleasant on the other side.

Re: In Search of Redemption

#44

"Hey look there's a fire pit already" Alton said, falling back into his usual quick jabber, "so we can make some hot food and get some rest before we do anything else. How's that sound Daios? Especially if we're gonna be taking a cold swim. And lets see what stuff they've got laying around here, that's half the reason we came in the first place!" He started to poke around, having taken the torch from Daios, and found a couple of beat-up wooden crates along one of the walls, with the tops just resting on them. Sliding them off, he saw one had several large chunks of wood - whether they were supposed to be clubs or firewood he couldn't tell. They were getting used as the latter.
The second crate proved to have much more interesting contents. It had a couple of decent looking daggers, which Alton immediately hid *somewhere* in his leathers. Silas glanced over and saw metal glinting and wondered what he didn't know about Alton, where he hid so many things in the armor that looked like it wouldn't block a thing, yet always seemed to put its thickest part between every blow and its owner's body.
The crate also had a light metal shield, which Alton tossed quickly to Silas, who caught it and was surprised at its lightness - it weighted maybe three quarters of a normal shield, because of the design. He liked it.
Alton saw something glint in the bottom. At first he thought it was just light from the torch reflecting off of some water, but then he reached down, and pulled out a bright red stone. "Hey Silas, Daios, take a look at this.." He danced it along his fingers, letting the torchlight glimmer off of its facets, seeming to be captured within its faces.

Re: In Search of Redemption

#45

Food sounded very good to Daios, although he didn't know what Alton meant to cook. Daios certainly had nothing to cook. It was just as well that Alton wanted the daggers, Daios couldn't have used them nearly as well. And he barely knew what to do with a shield. But the stone caught his attention. "Pretty." Without thinking, he took it to get a better look at it, turning it over in his hands to get a better look at it.

Then he froze, and looked up at Alton. He'd found it, and he was bigger than Daios. It was hard to miss the fear in his eyes. He handed it back to Alton, then quickly backed away, looking at the ground. "Daios sorry."

Re: In Search of Redemption

#46

Alton tilted his head, unused to this kind of reaction. He was used to being the smallest one, to having to give things to people so they wouldn't beat him up, and then get them back on his own.
"Hey, I've an idea, I'm gonna hide it in a hand, and if you pick the hand, then you get to keep it, ok?" he started switching it between his hands, moving quickly, and then moved them behind his back "And remember, if you can pull your own weight, you're not the little guy with us, ok?" He held out his hands.
When Daios tapped a fist, he opened it to show no gem there. Then he quickly opened the other hand, showing no gem there either. Putting his palm near Daios' right ear, with a flourish Alton made the red stone glimmer, seemingly out of Daios' ear, or perhaps thin air, and handed it with a grin to his surprised audience.

Re: In Search of Redemption

#47

Daios stared. He hadn't seen anyone do... anything like that, really. It didn't feel like magic, though. As Alton handed it to him, he looked at the man in confusion. He was... giving it to him? Suddenly he smiled, holding the jewel like it was the most valuable thing in the world. "Thank... thank you." He sat down next to the fire, still smiling. Maybe it was his imagination, but the jewel felt warm. He liked it.

Meanwhile, Silas had been holding some strips of dried meat over the fire to cook. Daios wasn't too sure what sort of meat it was, and really didn't care much. He timidly took the peice Silas handed him, and held it carefully until it cooled. It wasn't the best tasting stuff in the world, but he'd had worse. He nibbled on it carefully, but didnt' finish it. No telling when he'd find more, and it wouldn't be right to keep taking Silas and Alton's food.

Re: In Search of Redemption

#48

Silas quickly wolfed down his food, another attribute acquired at the Arena. "I'll take first watch. Daios, you get my sleep bag, I'll take Alton's when I wake him for watch." He looked at the two who seemed to have bonded so quickly. He was glad he knew them, it made it easier to think about now than to think about before. He wasn't looking forward to watch and being alone with his thoughts.
Settling with the back to the fire, he faced the opening to the tunnels and settling in for a spell. He wasn't really one to try and talk to people much, but he could sort-of hear Alton talking to Daios, asking him questions about where he was from and a dozen other things.

When Silas said he'd take first watch, Alton immediately pulled his sleep bag out and plopped it next to Daios, and started peppering him with questions. "Where are you from? How come you ran away when we first found you? How come you're parents don't want you home?" He hadn't heard Silas' part of that conversation, and that had been bugging him.

Re: In Search of Redemption

#49

Daios had to concentrate very hard to keep up with Alton's rapid speech. He was getting better at it, though. "From Taldos, up in mountains. Very small." The next two questions were harder to answer. He hesitated a moment, fumbling for the right words. "Taldos... magic is bad for common people. Only Oligarchs can use. There was cave-in, Daios used magic." Here was where it got sticky. "Parents were scared of Oligarchs, and no like magic. If go back, give Daios to Oligarchs. Less bad for them that way." He didn't want to talk about the Oligarchs. They scared him, so he changed the subject. "Where is Alton and Silas from?"

Re: In Search of Redemption

#50

"Well, Silas is from a little port town called Keldros. It's across the sea. He was captured for the Arena, like I was, only he didn't have any particular reason to get picked up. I lived the last 10 years or so in Caele Aran, the capital of the kingdom across the sea. Living on your own as a child ends up getting you in trouble, so as soon as they considered me old enough to ship me out of there, and managed to catch me, they got me on one of the Arena boats." That was about as much as Silas knew, and he wasn't going to tell them that he knew where he had lived before, or that his stutter when he was nervous was due to learning it later in his childhood. They'd learn if the time came.
Alton rolled over in his bag, inching closer to the fire. "When we get up we'll check out what you found, and then go get you some stuff in the town that's supposed to be nearby. let's get some sleep." He shut his eyes, and within moments was fast asleep.

Re: In Search of Redemption

#51

The night passed uneventfully. Daios was dead to the world, completely exhausted. It actually took them a few tries to wake him up in the morning; he kept falling back asleep.

After they had eaten something, Daios led them back to the underwater tunnel he'd found. The water was very cold, but he'd been expecting that. The tunnel was easily large enough for the others to swim through as well. It wasn't far, it only took one breath. The pool opened into another cavern, deeper into the mountain. Daios boosted himself out of the pool, already shivering. His oversized clothes stuck to him, showing how painfully skinny he really was. Even through the matieral, it was easy to see his ribs.

As the other two got out of the pool, Daios concentrated. It was still difficult to do it on purpose, but after a couple of minutes, a small ball of light formed in the air a few inches above his head. It was bright enough to light an area about fifteen feet around.

Daios started wringing water out of his clothes, but froze when he heard a sound. It wasn't a goblin, but it sounded like someone was moving. Then, just outside of the light, someone spoke. "Who are you?" A tall man stepped into the light, blinking at them in confusion. He was tense, like he expected trouble, but unarmed. He'd been injured, recently, if the bruise on his forehead and blood matted in his hair was any indication. "Where am I?"

Re: In Search of Redemption

#52

"Yea gods man, are you all right?" Silas saw the man was in very poor condition, and hoped that he was able to remember enough of the scant first aid knowledge he had picked up in the Arena. "Hold still, we're not going to hurt you. Let me find something for your head?" he mumbled into his bag, looking for the cleanest thing in there. He looked for Alton, to have him share some of whatever that drink was that he had given Daios, but Alton was nowhere to be seen.

**

Alton had seen the injured man, and had thought, bait. Slipping into the shadows, he looked around to see what or who might have injured him, and if they were looking for more prey. He neither saw nor heard anyone for several dozen paces, but did find a pack which he thought belonged to the man. He grabbed it and headed back towards the one light in the cave, the slightly eerie glow of Daios' magic.

Re: In Search of Redemption

#53

"Uh... I think so. My head hurts, a little, but I guess that's normal enough." He gingerly felt the injury. "Someone... someone hit me. Damned hard, if this knot's any indication. Probably lucky they didn't break my skull in." In the stronger light, he looked disoriented. Both Alton and Silus had seen enough head injuries in the Arena to know he most likely had some sort of concussion. "Where are we, who are you, and what is that godawful stench?"

Daios was staring timidly. He was still a little nervous, but this new stranger didn't seem to be a threat to him. "Um, Daios is me. In caves, at edge of mountains. Smell is goblin, maybe cave for them before, but gone now." He was sure that any goblins that had used this area hadn't come in the way they had; at home, goblins were truly appalling swimmers. "Your head, sure is not bad? Looks bad."

The stranger frowned at him, clearly trying to follow Daios's broken common. He had the look of a man who was having trouble concentrating. "... Right. I suppose if there were goblins in this area they'd have killed me by now. As for my head, headwounds always bleed like mad, and almost always look worse than they are." He reached for the pack that Alton had found. "Is that mine?" he asked uncertainly. "I guess it is." He started rummaging around in it, frowning.