Private Tales A Life to Live

[Chasmine]

Being earnest wasn't something most people would attribute to Edric. While she had always tried to give others the benefit of the doubt, even Chasmine found herself questioning his words. Yet it wasn't simply because it was Edric who was saying them - but the histories tied to similar proclamations from others being farce.

Still, the lingering feeling that this time was for real wouldn't fade. Chas found herself clinging to that small, withered hope. She curled her hands up around his forearm, cold tingling against warm.

"Okay..."

A few moments of silence.

"You can rest. I will keep watch."

 

[Edric]

"Well, I've never felt safer." Edric said with a smile on his face, one that would make it hard to tell if he were telling a joke or not. But either way, his posture seemed to relax slightly, his back shifting against the hard but smooth stone, his head laying back, and his eyes falling shut.

It would not be long after that Chasmine would 'feel' him fall asleep.


Dawn the next day came quickly from Edric. Goosebumps across his skin waking him up as the dawn brought on it's dew. He took in a deep breath, hand rubbing at his face as he stroked fingers through his hair. He saw no sign of Chasmine, meaning she had seen nothing dangerous in the night.

With a satisfied breath he stood, wishing for a brief moment he had something to make breakfast with.

For a brief moment he lingered, then quickly snatched up the small remaining camp supplies. Anything he could use was good enough for him, and before a few minutes passed Edric found himself moving on with a bundle he'd not had before.

During the day he followed the trail left behind by those whose encampment he'd stolen. An advantageous move, as at the end of noon Edric came to a realization. "It's a city."

He'd said in realization.

"Or something like it." It made sense with all the marks. He was no expert tracker or anything, but those among Gilram's crew had taught him a thing or two. The signs in the mud were more than clear. Carts, animals, and shoes. It was all over, and a few miles later Edric was proven right.

As he crested a small bare and craggy hill, he was presented with a gloriously engineered city of steel, sheet metal, and primitive industry. His own brain couldn't quite put it together, but as he stood there he saw skins and species of all sorts. Orcs, Gnolls, Humans, and even what he thought were Hogboglins. Though most of the firest. "Holy shit, Chas."

Edric breathed in shock.

 

[Chasmine]

"A city?" Chasmine had echoed curiously from the amulet. She couldn't say why, but that didn't seem quite right. Something about these lands weren't quite what she would picture for a city of all things. A small town, perhaps, or village. Roving bands or clans of orcs - that's how they lived, right?

Not in cities.

The closer Edric moved toward it, however, the more she could sense the energy the populace gave off. Some areas within the Steppes were abundant with leyline energies while others lacked them entirely. But here it was a veritable sea of life.

"What do you see?" she asked after him and his shock, "Is it orcs?"

 

[Edric]

"Yeah." Edric confirmed almost immediately as he peered down into the chasm below.

Though he would not describe what he was looking at as a 'city', the settlement was teeming with life. Many people had carved homes out of the natural cliffside, but sprawling everywhere were beams of iron, perching from cliff to cliff like branches. Upon those lay the foundations of the town.

It was like nothing Edric had ever seen. "A bit more too."

He explained to Chas as he slowly stood up from his crouched position.

"We're definitely going to find a lead here." Edric declared with a happy chirp. "There's bound to be someone who knows something."

The Rogue said, shifting on his heel and immediately heading towards where he thought the nearest road would be. The town below had to have at least a thousand or so people in it, though he'd estimate it was closer to four or five. Surely someone down there would know where Maui was.

Maybe if they were lucky they'd run into the warlord herself.

 

[Chasmine]

What a lucky break!

Chas had been worried he would be stuck wandering the Steppes for days... weeks. Maybe longer. Though she knew little of the world beyond Alliria and Vel Anir, she knew at the very least that the Steppes consisted of a very large landscape that was not nearly as populated as the more lush areas of the world.

"That is... very lucky news," she remarked to him as he set off, "perhaps it would be best not to be too direct, though. If what those other orcs said is true ... her name may not bring the help you are looking for."

 

[Edric]

Edric stopped himself mid-stride, eyes immediately peeling away from the hulking mass of an Orc whom he'd spotted through the crowd and immediately started heading for. "Uhh...yeah, obviously."

He said, turning on his heel and instead moving deeper into the crowd.

"Maybe I won't use her name." Edric suggested, eyes flicking back and forth through the crowd as he searched the cat-walks. Signs hung everywhere, denoting shops and different merchants, trouble was none of it seemed to be in common.

Edric had no idea what the tongue actually was, though he guessed Orcish of some sort. Eyes flicked back and forth for a moment as he wandered, threading through the oddly diverse crowd until he spotted the sign of what he guessed to be a tavern.

Inside he could hear a mixture of raucous cheers and loud music. The thrums of bass and some put together orcish guitar echoing out to drown out almost all other sound.

He stepped forward, pushing through the crowd and standing up high on his toes to peek over the crowd. It was only then that Edric saw it, the pit within the middle of the bar, and the two men inside of it. "Oh look at that."

The Rogue said with more than a little curiosity in his tone.

 

[Chasmine]

"What is it?" Chasmine echoed once again. She was going to be asking this a lot if he did not learn to simply say what he was looking at.

 

[Edric]

"Oh, right." Edric said, slowly beginning to realize that Chasmine could indeed not see through his eyes. Beginning to explain as he continued to gently shove his way through the crowd. "It looks like a fighting pit, like the one in Deliv."

More than once in his life he had been sent on a mission that required him to fight in something like this, once even with Chasmine. "But, way more intense."

The Rogue Dreadlord said as he finally managed to push himself near the front, managing to catch a glimpse of the actual fight.

Below, in a pit that had been built into the steel branches of the strange city dropping down below the tavern floor, were two figures. One was an Orc, though an absolute brute of one. He stood nearly two heads taller than Edric, and in his hands were vicious saber like blades that each held serrated cuts within their steel.

Opposite him towered a creature that Edric had never seen before, though could guess it's name; a gnoll.

The beast was even bigger than the orc, and around it's feet curled a long blade like whip. The vicious grin on the creatures face twisted as it let out a strange bark of a laugh and suddenly shot it's arm forward. A loud cheer rolled across the crowd as the blade-like whip sliced the orcs arm, blood splattering on the scattered sand beneath his feet. "There's an Orc and a Gnoll, I think, both bigger than Sable and hell of a lot meaner."

Edric commented, and one of the patrons next to him let out a laugh.

"HA! Mean is right. That's Zogir, bastards killed a dozen men in the pits!" The Rogue dipped his head in a nod at the man's voice, though had no idea if Zogir was the Gnoll or the Orc.

 

[Chasmine]

Bigger than Sable was quite impressive. Sable Pembroke had been one of the larger, if not largest, Initiates of their year. Despite that curious advantage, he'd also been one of the nicer ones, too.

"It is not difficult to be meaner than Sable," Chasmine observed, "he gave me sandwiches when I was stuck in walls."

"Raaah-" said a very large komodo to the other side of the male patron holding a massive hank of meat-on-bone in one clawed hand and waving dismissively with the other, "Rottek mek hem dog meat. Put on good show for Chief, haa?"

 

[Edric]

"Ha!" Edric couldn't help but bark the small laugh at Chasmine's comment, thought he had no idea. His head shaking as the Orc suddenly shifted and darted forward, moving with a speed that even the Rogue Dreadlord found impressive.

The Orc dodged beneath the strange chain like blade by dropping to his knees and sliding in the sand. The serrated blades in his hand swiping against the Gnoll's thigh. Blood scattering as the dog-like humanoid bounded to the side to avoid anything more than a deep gash.

"Rottek mek hem dog meat. Put on good show for Chief, haa?"​

A voice called, and Edric turned his head with interest.

Ah, so Rottek is the Orc. Edric cleverly thought to himself using the Komodo's shout as context clues.

The two warriors fought quickly back and forth, Rottek moving with speed, while the Gnoll kept him at bay with the strange weapon, the two bandying blows back and forth in a way Edric had never seen before. It wasn't like back home, it wasn't practiced and careful, it was like he fought. Simple, brutal, and utterly effective. There was something about it that he couldn't help but like. Something that made him feel vindicated.

A whistle escaped him, and he whispered to Chasmine under the din of the crowd. "This is really something Chas. They fight like me!"

Edric mused with no small amount of marvel in his voice, almost forgetting for a moment why he was here as Rottek suddenly shifted his footing. Moving between the Gnoll's whip-like sword and flinging one of his blades towards his opponents face. A moment of panic flickered over the other man's face, and in the split second of his concern the Orc was upon him.

The Rogue couldn't help but loose a scream of enthusiasm as the two opponents crashed together into a ball of violence. His voice almost as loud as the Komodo's. "He's putting on a show alright!"

He called to the creature just opposite the orc that had spoken to him.