Retribution

[Vega]

71st Trial of Ashan during Arc 717

following this

Just a short while ago, Vega had gone searching for Arlo when his mare, Peg, had turned up at camp without him. She had taken the horse and the pair of them had come across Arlo after a fight with some bandits. He was covered in bumps and bruises and, despite his reassurance that he had given as good as he got, Vega knew better. She had tended to his wounds, after all and although she had next to no medical knowledge, she knew that his fist was untouched. Left hook, indeed, he hadn't landed a blow.

That was what really wound her up, she considered as she stomped back along the path to town, following his trail with relative ease. He'd brought a cart and horse out this way earlier today, after all, it was fairly straightforward to follow. The thought that he'd felt the need to lie to her in order to save face when they had obviously kicked seven bells out of him? Oh, that made her blood boil and Vega was building herself up into a real head of steam.

So, the redhead mixed blood stomped and she kept one hand on her sword as she followed Arlo's trail. Soon enough, she got to the clearing where he had been working with Peg to try and get her more used to being ridden. There, the tracking would be more difficult because it was quickly obvious that there were a lot of tracks here. He'd come in, he'd put the cart over here. Vega walked his steps, kneeling next to where the cart had been as she looked. Her hand moved out, just above the ground as she visualised Arlo unhitching Peg here.

There were too many footprints and hoofprints, she thought. She probably could work it out, but she needed to do this smart. Arlo had delayed her and he'd made a fair point, they'd probably be long gone. This clearing was a prime place for an ambush, she reckoned, so she looked around with the intention of trying to work out where they might have watched him from.

Vega's violet eyes narrowed as she saw something and she stood. "Gotcha," she said and she moved to the edge of the clearing and moved aside a bush. Yes, no doubting it, there was a path back here and people had walked up and down it. She couldn't tell how many, it was well used, but she glanced back at the clearing and decided this was the most likely candidate.

So, with a renewed sense of purpose and no sign of her temper cooling any time soon, Vega went on the next step of bandit hunting.

[Arlo Creede]

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There hadn't been any bandits to track down. None that had stalked or ambushed him, and none that had stolen his horse, only to have her toss them off and turn up at camp alone without him.

The reality was that Arlo had purchased a saddle and bridle, a book and a blanket had attempted to ride a mare that wanted none of it. And she'd let him know in such a way that he was sure to remember. Several times over.

Except that he hadn't been able to tell Vega that when she found him, and instead he'd invented the story about the ruffians and the resulting scuffle. Arlo told the tale effortlessly without bothering to think ahead. And in spite of having plenty of reasons not to, she'd believed it top to bottom.

It complicated things, but as a result...as an aside, it meant that he was a natural born storyteller. Cassion would be proud, he was sure.

Admittedly he felt a little guilty, especially when she insisted that she'd go out in search of the ones who'd done it. Nonetheless he couldn't bear to tell her the truth then. By that time, she'd have done to him far worse than she had planned for those bandits. So when she left camp, Arlo resolved to follow her and make sure she didn't get in over her head. After all, there was nothing to find of the two men who'd never existed. So hopefully she'd discover nothing but a stone cold trail, and come back to camp without having found any trouble.

He couldn't let her know it though. So Arlo had left camp a good few bits after her, and when he got near the field where he'd attempted to ride Peg, he hid in a small copse of trees and watched her trying to make sense of the tracks. There were plenty, both human and horse. His previous riding lesson hadn't gone very well. But once she entered the trees and began heading down the woody path, Arlo followed again. But always at a distance. Always out of sight.

[Vega]

There were noises around and about, once she thought she'd heard a twig snapping behind her, but when she glanced back, she heard nothing. An animal or her imagination, Vega thought and carried on. Following the tracks was fairly straightforward, at least at first as the path was initially more obvious. As she continued, though, it grew less and less used and yet, there were tracks which were recent. It was important, she knew, not to assume that the tracks she was seeing were the same ones so she stopped regularly, checking and checking again. They were the same and there were a few of them.

Were these the bandits who had attacked Arlo? Vega didn't know for sure, but she wouldn't do so either until she found them so she kept going. The trees and bushes were more overgrown here and she reasoned that no one had a camp which they trawled through this kind of trail to get to unless they were up to no good. Frowning, she came to the inescapable conclusion that there were more than two of them though and she stood up with a sigh. Well, however many there were, she'd just have to be clever about it.

As she got closer, Vega's way of moving changed, she stepped forward more slowly, taking care to be quiet. Ahead, she could hear voices and she made her way, carefully, to behind a large bush, watching. There were five of them, she counted and she stayed quiet and still, crouched behind the bush as she watched and listened. Straining her ears, Vega heard their conversation and her face set in a determined expression. As luck had it, she was listening in to a conversation about their latest haul. They had just come back from a village or township and they'd broken into a house there. As luck would have it, the largest one was talking about the rich pickings they'd stolen and then talk turned to the merchant whose home it had been. They'd killed him and as they chuckled together about how he squealed like a pig, Vega had notched an arrow into her bow and was lifting it, aiming at the large one talking.

Yet, her shaking hands betrayed her; she had never actually killed a person before and she wasn't entirely sure that she could do it now. She was all bravado, no doubting it, but the act of killing another being? Their conversation turned, though, to the merchant's wife and daughter and at that conversation her hands stopped shaking as she aimed at the largest one. Releasing the arrow on an outbreath, it flew straight and true and embedded in the largest bandit's gut. He went down, clutching at his stomach and yelling. That left four, Vega thought and figured that she had time to shoot another before they realised where the bolt had come from when she heard an unmistakable sound behind her.

"Drop it."

So there were six of them, not five, Vega thought and she sighed. She'd been so focused on the five in the camp that this one had come from nowhere. He had a crossbow pointing at her and she lowered her head with a sigh.

"I got 'er!" The man next to her shouted and, as Vega dropped her bow, he leaned forward and grabbed her by the hair, pulling her to her feet. Which was, of course, a mistake. As he did that, Vega knew that he couldn't shoot her because his hand was in her hair so she went with the hard pulling motion and she used the momentum. She couldn't stop the yelp of pain which escaped her as his hand twisted in the roots of her hair, but she went with it and she stood and swung her closed fist around as his face.

Vega wasn't a particularly skilled combatant hand to hand, but as she smashed her assailant in the face with her fist, she didn't really need to be. The sound of pain turned into a roar of rage as she hit with all her force and strength. She was a sight stronger than she looked and she used it; she hit him square on. Blood and teeth flew and the hand in her hair loosened as he dropped.

That still left four of them, though, and just her. They were coming quickly and so she drew her sword and yelled in pure fury. "Come on!" Vega was outnumbered and they didn't look like they were novices the way they held their weapons. Two of them with swords, two with large maces. Keeping her stance Vega lifted her sword and decided that, since there were only four, she was probably going to have to kill a couple of them twice.

[Arlo Creede]

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How far was she going to travel into the woods, Arlo wondered as he followed behind Vega at a distance. Always careful to keep himself hidden, the forest floor was nonetheless littered with things that could snap underfoot, rustle, crunch beneath the sole of his boot. Especially off the beaten path. Vega had already passed by the place where Peg had ducked from underneath him, and it was there that once he'd gotten himself up, he'd simply returned to the field the same way he'd come.

He lost some ground as she traveled farther ahead, in order to slow down and walk quietly while concealing himself. When that twig had snapped some ways back, he'd winced, convinced when she turned back around she'd spot him. But she didn't. In fact she'd carried on, following several sets of tracks that could only belong to two or more men. Didn't mean they were traveling together however, or that she'd ultimately find whoever had left the tracks behind.

Arlo was still convinced that eventually she'd give up, turn around and head towards home. Until, that was, he began to hear voices coming from up ahead. They were still too far ahead for him to hear what they were saying. But he realized that not only was Vega not turning back, but she might just be meaning to confront them. At least it looked that way, judging by the way she crouched behind the bushes and held tight to her bow.

"Don't do it, Vega," he whispered even while drawing his own bow, just in case. But there was no way she could hear him. Arlo intended her to however, and began to creep closer, hoping get her attention and warn her away. It's not them," he'd say. But then the necessity of remaining as quiet as possible became all the more important.

Several things happened all at once, before he was close enough to call out. Suddenly he was able to hear what the men were actually saying, and in fact from what he could tell there was more than two of them. Their conversation exposed them as very dangerous individuals, and the type of men who didn't flinch away from murdering innocents. And, it appeared that Vega intended to take them on rather than retreating the way that she should have.

Arlo would have revealed them both by shouting at her to stop, as she raised her bow and began to fire. But things had gone too far by then, and maybe it was better for her if he stayed quiet and acted instead. If she was going to do it, then he couldn't let her do it alone. There were at least three, maybe four or five from his vantage and even as Vega eliminated one of them, Arlo was closing in. Not fast enough to stop another one from creeping up behind her though.

It all went to pieces then, and Arlo broke into a sprint, no longer worried about any noise he might have made. The shouting and scuffling was drowning it out. He had his bow in his hand but couldn't fire at the one that was an immediate threat to Vega. That one had her in his clutches but she was giving as good as she got. So targeting another of the men, Arlo nocked an arrow, aimed and fired, hitting the man in the throat and dropping him like a stone.

He still didn't show himself though. Instead, it might be better if he was able to sow confusion in the small camp by making them believe there were several others they just couldn't see. Reaching down, he picked up a stone and threw it some distance off to the side where it rattled through the branches. Another of the men turned and looked that way, shouting to his fellows, and Arlo used the distraction to fire another arrow at that one. Hopefully Vega could use the distraction to her advantage too.

[Vega]

There were four of them and she didn't doubt for a trill that they were probably more skilled than her. Right in that moment, she didn't care. They'd just been talking about unthinkable acts and they'd hurt her friend. She had them exactly where she wanted them, she firmly believed. There was no room for doubt in combat and Vega had none. She was going to win, they were going to die and that was that.

As they moved towards her, one of them fell, dropping like a stone with an arrow in his throat. As that happened, Vega knew, or believed without doubt, that it was Arlo. He'd followed her, no doubting it. Which left three of them facing off against the two of them, and specifically against her. Some kind of sound off to the side distracted them, she saw one of the three glancing. Just a split trill of being distracted, but it was enough.

She was poised, standing on the balls of her feet and ready to move, her legs relaxed and her knees slightly bent so that she would be able to move. Which was what she did. Springing forward, just enough that she could make the attack, Vega swung her sword in a downward sweeping arc, putting her strength into it and swinging from her hips to make sure that she got maximum momentum. Her aim was good and she sliced down, cutting him across the neck and down into the shoulder; he fell with a cut off cry and a gurgling sound.

Vega was good with a sword and she was fast on her feet. When she hit, she hit a lot harder than she seemed likely to. These were good things, but she was one person and she was still very much learning with a sword. There were still two of them and as she had moved she had unwittingly left herself open to the one on her right, who took the opportunity.

The first Vega felt of it was the crunch of the mace as it hit her. Thankfully, she'd kept moving and so it didn't hit anywhere vital, but she felt it smack into her side and she yelled out in pain at the cracking of a rib. Adrenaline, though, kicked in and she swung her sword, twisting it's downward trajectory into an upwards sweep. She would have cut him clean across the gut had he not moved out of the way and then she cried out again as she saw the mace start to swing towards her and she lifted her sword to block.

The defense worked, that wasn't the issue. As his mace connected with her blade, it was the jarring down her arms and the feeling of pain in her side which caused her to yell. Without thought or consideration Vega took advantage of the fact that she knew where both his hands were, so knew he couldn't block and kicked him square between the legs with every bit of strength she had.

Of course, what she didn't do, was pay any attention to the final bandit, her focus was on the one in front of her and that last one, sword in hand, was ready to run her through.

[Arlo Creede]

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They were outnumbered, even if Vega couldn't know for sure that it was him at the edge of the trees. Nevertheless even in the thick of it Arlo was impressed. She fought like a whirling dervish. Which in turn made it difficult, considering her preference for her fighting weapon in hand and him with a bow. It meant needing to wait for a clear shot while she took the risk of getting run through or reduced to a bloody pulp with a mace.

He'd fired at the distracted one, but just as well that Vega finished him off. He'd turned so quickly on his heel that Arlo's arrow had only sunk into his arm, rather than the killing shot that he'd hoped for. There was still two of them though and he winced as Vega took a beating that he could have prevented had he been given a clear shot. Rather than rushing in on impulse though he shifted a yard or so over as she began to rally.

There was another one there after all that she couldn't have been watching, and he'd kill her while her attention was elsewhere. It was the only option then. Nocking an arrow, Arlo took just a trill to aim, and sent the arrow flying towards the man where it sunk deep in his chest. It was enough. The man was dead before he hit the ground, which left just the one who'd been grappling with Vega. And if she didn't handle him in the time that it took Arlo to ready his bow again, he'd be sending an arrow into the back of his neck.

[Vega]

Vega's attention was fully on the man with the mace, who was intent on killing her. If he hit her in the head with the force and impact he'd hit her in the ribs, it would be game over and she knew it. Yet, in her peripheral vision she was aware that there was another and she knew that she simply wasn't good enough to even pay attention to them both, let alone fight them both. So, she kicked the man who had wielded the mace squarely between the legs, her hands held above her head, holding her sword parallel to the ground as she blocked his swinging mace, the pain of that movement causing her to yell out in pain and frustration.

He didn't yell in pain or frustration though. As Vega's heavy boot connected with his groin, he didn't really make much of a noise at all. She was strong, her kick was aimed and he crumpled. Yet Vega knew, even as she felt a sudden wave of satisfaction, she was open to his friend, who held a sword and who was about to bury it in her and kill her.

But instead, the friend fell like a stone as Arlo's arrow embedded itself in his chest. Vega recognised it happening on some basic, instinctual level and she snarled in fury at the man with the mace who was leaning forward. As much as she had been trying to a mere moment before, she couldn't kill him now that he was unarmed and she stepped forward to kick his mace away. Thankfully, she kept her eye on him as she did, very aware that this might be a ruse.

It was. A flash of metal as his knife flew towards her was all she saw, but she did see it, so she twisted. The pain in her side stopped her from doing that sufficiently, though, and the knife sliced across her arm. Still, it was a shallow wound and one that she could stitch up later. If he'd hit, she thought calmly, he could have killed her. Vega continued her step forward and thrust her sword into the man's throat, timing it as he looked up with a sneer on his face. One strike, in and then back out and he fell, blood pouring.

She glanced around to make sure. There had been six, she knew. One, she took with her first arrow. Two, she'd punched in the face and then finished off. Three, Arlo's first arrow in the throat, four she'd killed when he was distracted by Arlo. Her head was spinning with pain, but she had to know that they were all taken care of. Five she'd just killed and six was dead next to her, an arrow in his chest.

Looking around at them, counting them off in her head, Vega breathed out and gave another grunt of pain. "Arlo? I think he broke my ribs with that snarkling mace." She didn't doubt it was him, she hadn't turned around but that wasn't the point. "I've never killed people before." Her voice was shaking but she stood firm. "Was it them? Are these the ones that hurt you or do I need to go find them still?" They were going to have to deal with this, the aftermath of it and so on.

"Arlo?" Vega was concerned that she was going to throw up, but she knew how much it would hurt so she held it in. "We need to deal with this mess. Are you ok?" Immortals, but she hoped it was this lot who'd had a pop at him; she really didn't think she had another fight in her today.

[Arlo Creede]

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In the small clearing a bloodbath had taken place. Arlo had never killed anyone. Not on purpose and not by accident. The aftermath made him sick to his stomach, but his focus first and foremost was Vega. Making sure she'd come through it without any life threatening injuries was all that mattered in those first few bits.

"Me neither," he said about killing and dropped his bow to go to her, to feel along her sides in order to see what the damage was. "Bruised for sure. Maybe cracked but probably not broken. We'll wrap them when we get back to camp. But if it's not enough you'll need to see a healer about it." Of course that would require some explaining that neither of them wanted to do. But it was neither here nor there. If she was broken then she needed putting back together.

But then she asked a question that he could've easily predicted she would. Was it them? The funny thing was that just bits ago, he might have continued the ruse for his own sake rather than admit that it was Peg who'd given him all his scrapes, bumps and bruises. But now it had nothing to do with him. Not saving face. Not trying to avoid her temper when she found out. All that had changed over the course of a fight. Now the story was for her. And for Vega's sake.

"You don't need to look any farther," he said. The truth was, based on what he'd overheard, those men had done far, far worse than banditry. As for them, her in particular, well, Arlo added, "It's the thing t' do anyway. When somebody tries to kill you, you've got to kill them right back." No matter that she was the one who'd provoked that particular fight. Those men needed killing, and they'd just saved the hangman the trouble if they'd ever been caught.

She shouldn't have done it though, he told her while he was considering what they'd do now. "They could easily have killed you, and maybe done other things before they did." But he was fine, he told her. Now though they had to figure this mess out. "I don't know about you, but I think the only people who'll be missing them are those hunting them down for what they did."

He'd rather not have to go back and report it. Not that he thought anyone would blame them, but it was a story he'd rather not tell, or see Vega be forced to tell either. But there were too many of them and she was injured. Burying the men was out of the question. But listening to the forest around them, Arlo was reminded of the lay of the land. "There's a waterway just down that hill. A fast moving one with a strong current."

Deep stream, shallow river, the reality was something in between. But implication was, if a body was to find its way into that water, it would be carried for miles downstream in a matter of bits. Maybe into a larger body of water where the weight of the men's armor and weapons would pull them down and hold them fast to the bottom.

Arlo wasn't sure what else they could do, or what she thought might be wiser. But it was an option nevertheless. If not that, then he guessed they could go to the authorities and report that they'd both been ambushed by the men and it had all been a desperate act of self-defense. Which Arlo figured was as close to truth as the truth itself was.

[Vega]

The wave of relief she felt when she saw it was Arlo didn't show in her face, except for the swift change of eye colour to a deep violet. Vega didn't believe that the colours of her eyes related to her emotions, but they did. Of course, at least half the time Vega also didn't admit to the emotions she was having, so there was that. So for all that shifting colour, the speed of the transformation and the depth of colour all told a very clear story, the young woman herself was unaware of it. As Arlo might well be, certainly she was giving away no clues as to how relieved she was as her words were simple. "Ow! Gerrof, Arlo, that hurts."

She frowned deeply, though, looking at him with concern on her face. "You're not hurt?" If it hadn't been for the fact that she'd got the drop on them in terms of surprise and that Arlo had followed her and surprised them all, Vega would be dead or, as he said, experiencing a lot worse. "I can breathe alright, so I think yer right. I thought it was broken, when he hit. Damnit, but that mace hurts." She glared at Arlo rather balefully, like it might be his fault.

He said that she shouldn't have gone there, shouldn't have chased them down and Vega looked at him with the kind of stubborn chin-jut that he'd grown more than used to over the time they'd been travelling together. "They could 'ave killed me, aye. If I'd known there were more of them, I'd have done things different. But I'd still have done it." There was no doubting that, not in her mind. "It was the right thing to do. You know I'm right." Vega was adamant. "Besides, if you'n me don't have each others' backs, who does? I should have told you, though. Thanks for comin' after me."

But then, what to do with the bodies? Well, Vega considered and pursed her lips. "We check their bodies, check the camp. They've got weapons, that one over there had a bow, so we get that stuff." Looking down, Vega cursed slightly at the blood on her sleeve. "I'm bleedin' from where he sliced me. It's not deep, but I need to check it." She didn't like the idea of just leaving their bodies in the river, but he was right at the same time. Land dwellers were funny about stuff and Vega was well aware that she'd started it.

"I'm alright with either, really." Her face was pale as the shock of the situation was setting in and Vega frowned as she tried to concentrate. "Whatever you reckon is best." Looking around she shook her head. "I'm sorry, I didn't really think as far as 'and once we've won', really." That was very true and, whatever he thought was best she would insist on helping with. She'd avoid doing anything too strenuous, but she could collect up things or do, she would demand, something.

[Arlo Creede]

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"Of course it hurts," Arlo said bluntly when he'd felt around Vega's ribs and she complained. "I told you before. Means it's working." And it was about to hurt more since she'd shown him the wound on her arm. Digging into his rucksack for his first aid kit, he went about cleaning the wound with alcohol, sealing the wound with some sort of jelly-like gunk in a jar and applying a bandage to keep the wound clean.

"You're lucky it's not a deep wound," he continued, as much to calm and distract her as to say anything genuinely meaningful. "I've been yearning to try out my stitching skills or better yet, that funny looking cauterizing iron in the kit." She didn't need to admit what she was feeling any more than he needed to comment or call her on it. It was as plain as the trial was bright, right there in the shifting colors of her eyes.

And no, he wasn't hurt, Arlo told her. He'd been on the outskirts and not in the thick of it like she was. She was pale, and he frowned, digging into his sack again for his flask and a small handful of the blueberries that he'd had when they'd met the Bruxon in the woods. "Drink," he insisted as he handed her both of them. "And nibble on those. The sugar in them should give you a little boost."

Of course he'd come after her and she didn't need to thank him for that. He'd also have argued that her belief that he'd been roughed up just a little was a pale, pale thing compared to what those men had apparently done. For that alone, they'd met a fate that suited them well. "What else would I do but come after you?" he argued as he got up and examined the carnage around them. "If it wasn't for me, you'd get in double the trouble that you do already." He grinned a little in spite of it all, if only because the familiar banter might do her some good.

Gathering up the bow, the mace and whatever else he could find, he brought them back and left them in a pile. "I'll take care of it. You sit there and rest." It wasn't going to be easy going it alone. The men weren't lightweights any of them. But pale as she was, and injured, it would do her more harm than good to struggle with what needed doing. The stream wouldn't seem as close by as it sounded to be, once he was laboring under the task of dragging them there.

Arlo walked to the stream alone to see just how deep it was. And while he was there he stopped to think about what he would do. Really think about it. It took some time, but once he decided he turned back and returned to where he'd left Vega. "Come on," he said, helping her up. "I'm going to get you back to camp, and then I'll take care of this." Just how he'd do it he didn't explain. But once she was settled comfortably back in their camp, he left again, promising that he wouldn't be gone long.

Turned out, it was relative. He was gone for over a break, but instead of returning to the clearing he went in through the gates of Ne'haer and found a local guardsman. It was there, at the headquarters where he explained that his friend had gone off tracking in the woods, and with her gone so long he'd begun to worry and followed after her. But by the time he caught up, she'd already stumbled upon some men, who judging by their conversation, had committed several grisly murders in a neighboring town.

She'd overheard their conversation and they spotted and attacked her. She fought, and Arlo showed up and defended her from the treeline. Between the two of them the men were dead and while both of them had been injured it was her, far more than him. There was a bit or two there when Arlo worried that the guard would question his story though most of it was true as could be in a sort of roundabout way. But as it happened, happily, the news of the murders had already reached the gates of Ne'haer and there was a bulletin in the planning that would have been pinned up shortly along with a warning for the citizens.

Arlo was asked to describe the men and he told them he could do them one better, and led several guardsmen to the place where the bodies were strewn. That was them, the guardsmen agreed, and it was fortunate that now they could inform those close to the men's victims that the killers had been found and eliminated.

Did he want them to check, they asked, if there was a bounty on the heads of those men? By rights it ought to go to Vega and him. But no, Arlo insisted. There was no need and the two of them were just happy to have done their civic duty. It had taken just a very small turning of the truth to sort the mess out. But by the time he returned to camp he could reassure Vega that it had been, and she needn't worry, but only rest.