Life Stone

[tangletail]

Leo continued throughout the night. Once he finished scaling the tree with a mixture of climbing the trunk, and grappling with the hook as quickly as he could. He'd lower himself back to the ground and repeated. After the fourth time when his muscles were aching completely. He began to practice his acrobatic feats with his daggers in hand. Each one was done successively after each other with little time for breaks. He practiced a variety of flips, rolls, and combat maneuvers till his body no longer allowed him to land safely on his feet, but onto his knees instead when he was heavily panting. Figuring it's now time to call it a night, the cat slowly rose to his feet, and returned his equipment back into the sash. He made his way back to the Inn.

Had the town been large enough to be called a city, the thief would take the risk of visiting several homes on his way out, and maybe even treating himself to a walk along the thief highway, the roof tops high above. But alas it's a small town, and maybe a one horse at that.

Once he returned to the inn, his tired body carelessly left heavy footsteps that creaked a bit more loudly than was typical of the thief. If no one stopped him, he'd just keep going without really acknowledging their presence past a worn out tired look. He past by several doors till he got to his own. He pushed it open and closed it behind himself. He locked the door, and quickly slid a chair underneath the nob after what had happened a while ago. He went up to the window and made sure it was secure and heavy before flopping down into the bed and shutting his eyes.

[Vosur Aekira]

Karina looked at Helios when he asked about her reason for finding the Life Stone, which made her want to retort a question back to him, but she just simply looked at him for a few seconds before looking back in front of herself. "Family, that's all you need to know." she spoke, looking to the still night scenery, which was a heavy contrast from the noise in the tavern. She started to grin a bit as she heard something that caught her attention. "Oi, I'm kinda glad that Korius left the tavern as early as he did. Sounds like they're playing 'Toss the Dwarf', which usually ends up they find the smallest person to toss and they each take turns to see how far they can toss them. He'd probably be the one doing the tossing though."

[ShiroTenshiRyu]

Helios couldn't help, but laugh at the thought of Korius tossing around a tiny fur. "I doubt it's Korius we should be glad left, as like to be you or Leo for free they'd first try tossing one of you." The thought of Karina or Leo flying through the air nearly brought Helios to his knees in laughter. "It's been a while you know." He said with a soft smile. "Since I've truly laughed that is. When I lost my Luna two years ago I vowed I'd never give up searching for the Life Stone. I don't think it was until Korius found a shard in the pile, that I began to believe we'd find one." Helios stood up closer to her than he'd realized and pointed to a cluster of stars that made the shape of a Kitsune. "I'd never noticed that cluster till after I'd lost my Luna. In a way I think she's watching over us." Helios continued to stare at the stars and the moon not really sure if he was still talking to Karina or himself. Either way he would wait till she was ready to leave or sleep under the massive oak where they were now either way he'd have no qualms.

[Vosur Aekira]

Her expression turned from a cheerful one to a pout in a quick-instant due to his mentioning of her or Leo being tossed, then she relented into a sigh. "Yeah, you're about right on that. They might have some sense to not toss the miniature berserker... Though I can honestly say that mead does things to a lot of people." she spoke. Her hearing of his Luna made her go silent for a while, he had opened up more than she really cared for, so this made her uneasy to just leave her side so open-ended. It took her a little while of thought on how to say it without going completely into her own monologue. "My reason for the Life Stone is to undo what happened 10 years ago... when my father lost the ability to use his right arm and when I lost my mother."

[ShiroTenshiRyu]

She'd opened up not something at all Helios was expecting. "Your father seemed a good man, certainly one worth the time and effort of finding the Life Stone." Helios paused for a moment hesitating to speak. "Karina for what it's worth, you are a wonderful companion. In truth you all are. I hope we can have many good times down the roads." Helios sat down leaning against the large oak content to lay out under the stars. He didn't get to do it often in such a calm and serene environment.

[Vosur Aekira]

"I have nothing against you, but there is something you must think about. If what Korius has is a shard of that legendary stone, then why was it shattered in the first place? Is this item really imbued with unlimited power or... is it a limited number of times it can be used before it's drained of it's power?" she spoke as she was thinking. "...But we're not at that point yet, we're not even sure if it can be reassembled... Great, I'm overthinking all of this." she grumbles, looking about for the inn before starting to head towards it to turn in for the night.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Korius awoke early the next morning, well before sunrise. He left his room and walked outside with his sword, making his way outside of town. The old wolf practiced with his sword for the morning, fighting imaginary enemies as the battles of his past manifested themselves in his mind's eye. His swings were controlled, but they started shuttering as he started to feel his berserker instincts fighting him. With that, Korius stopped his practice, sweating up a storm. He was about to rest when he heard a lot of running footsteps. The wolf looked over his should and saw a cloaked silhouette running towards the town with several behind it. It took a while before Korius's eyes adjusted to looking at the sunrise before he realized that it was Suzumi, and she was being chased by several bandits. Korius turned and ran towards Suzumi, just brushing past her as he brought his sword down, crushing the ground before the bandits. Some most of them turned tail, but one seemed to keep coming, jumping up onto the large weapon. Instead of lifting it back up, the old wolf merely let go and grabbed at the leaping bandit's neck. The bandit struggled with no success as Korius's hand was firmly around his neck. He was not in a good mood this morning, having lacked even a restful sleep, so he continued to squeeze until there was a disturbing snap. Korius let go of the limp body and looked over at Suzumi, "Are you alright?"

[tangletail]

Leo soon awoke after a bit of sunlight had breached the window and flooded the room with light. His eyes slowly cracked open after he rolled out of the bed onto his feet. With a groggy shuffle, he plucked up his equipment from the nightstand, and moved the chair away from the door. Later he was outside of the Inn, heading outside planning on practicing with his daggers. However, by the time he had made way outside of the town he had heard some noises that sounded like a suffle of some kind.

He quickly made way through the bushes, and had found Korius dropping a body to the floor. "Holy crap..." he grumbled, the fur on his neck standing on end as his eyes looked down to the body. He came closer, his eyes not yet looking up to the cloaked figure as he dipped down to roll the body over. A grimace was worn on his expression as he could tell almost immediately by it's open eyes that he was dead already. Something about killing did not quite settle well with the feline. Luckily, he hadn't eatten this morning, or he'd probably defiled the corpse. But it didn't prevent him from taking the time to search him for anything useful. While what he was touching still was a corpse, he had learned early in his childhood how to steal to survive. Even if it meant robbing a grave. "Does trouble follow you, Korius? Or is it simply a add on to your company?"

[ShiroTenshiRyu]

Helios woke early greeted by the sunrise as he stretched out his arms staying under the great oak tree he'd fallen asleep under. Instinctively he went to his blade, checking it was there, and then stood up heading back into the town where the market was. After buying a small loaf of bread and some dried meat for the road he began to head back to the tavern to meet the others. As he did he say a group of furs chasing a cloaked figure in the opposite direction. Just ignore them Helios, Korius wouldn't want you getting tangled in the affairs of the locals. Helios would have ignored it, but he heard the noise continue to grow and decided to investigate. He arrived just in time to see Korius snapped the neck of one of the men.



Helios looked over to the fur being chased. "Suzumi! What did you do now?" Helios could only imagine the trouble this one had gotten into.

[Suzumibachii]

Suzumi scuffled around on the floor as she glanced back at Korius shuddering at the loud snapping of bone. Hey eyes wildly darting around as she started to catch her breath and regain some of her composure.  Looking at her hands the gems that were once embedded into her gloves shattered and broken as she let out a rather relieved sigh. "I...I was going to wait for you guys to get out of the dragons lair..." She was honest about it she was planning on waiting for them and helping them once they got out, but things didnt really go as planned. "There were bandits... I tried to stay out of their way but they caught scent of me. I was lucky that for the past few days they couldnt decide what to do with me. It was only today that I found a chance to escape after they made thier mind up as to what to do with such a little mage." Once again glancing down at her gloves she frowned. "Busted my gems up pretty badly... They wernt stupid I'll give them that. I will need to get them replaced before I can be useful again I am afraid."

[Vosur Aekira]

Karina had woken up from her near-restless sleep, gathering up her equipment and purchasing some travel food along with a meal she could take with her. She managed to finish her shank of lamb and fresh carrot before she heard some commotion happening, quickly taking off her bow and pulling off an arrow in case she needed it as she rushed to see Korius holding up the bandit and a familiar figure nearby on the ground. "Suzumi, you okay?" she called out as she kept her aim at the other bandits before they left. She eased up her aim and quietly walked over to the mage. "Let's see... I thought I saw some gems back in that den, but we didn't have enough time to get anything of use other than a few coin. As much as I would like to press on, my take is that we should be able to have everyone able to defend ourselves as quickly as possible."

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana awoke at sunrise, as she usually did, though she didn't remember falling asleep. Sitting up slowly, she stretched her arms up in the air above her head and yawned. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she sat there for a minute or two before standing up. Grabbing her cloak off the post, she put it on and secured it. She grabbed her two quivers and put them on over her head and arm then did the same with her bow. Untying her hair, she ran her fingers through it then re-braided it with quick, nimble fingers and tied it again. After that, she finally headed out of her room. She didn't really pay much attention to whether the doors allotted to the group were opened or closed, besides Korius' since she had to pass it on her way out, which she saw was open. Before exiting the inn, she pulled the hood of her cloak up over her head.
She found a place where she bought food for her travels then headed over to the tavern. In the tavern, she got herself something for breakfast, though it wasn't much and she was finished quickly. It surprised her that she hadn't seen hide nor hair of any of the other group members, but she wasn't all that concerned. They could have already had their food and been wandering around town or they could have still been sleeping, for all she knew. She did wonder where Korius had gone off to though since she had noticed his door open at least. "Probably an earlier riser than me." She thought to herself, taking the last drink of her water. "Could be practicing or getting information or something." With a shrug, she rose to her feet, leaving coins on the table to pay for her meal. Exiting the tavern, she proceeded to aimlessly roam about the town. She watched the people who were up and about pass by her, hearing snippets of conversations that didn't mean much to her, seeing shops open up. If anything, it was a good distraction to her thoughts that were trying to fight their way to the forefront of her mind. Reaching up, she rubbed the back of her neck underneath her hood then looked up at the sky. After a moment, her hood fell back and she quickly pulled it back up, training her eyes on the ground, people, and buildings again as she continued walking.

[Solntse]

Sage sat alone her fingers running over the small purple beads of her rosary. She'd heard rumors of a group of adventurers that were staying in the local tavern. Of course she'd heard of, and seen many other groups, each questing for this or that, but never before had she felt drawn to any of them. She was temped to go down to the tavern to investigate the group for herself, but could  think of no excuse to do so. So instead she sat here, mentally arguing with herself, half wanting to go investigate, an half afraid of what she might find. Finally curiosity won over, she would go down to the tavern but only long enough to to see if what she had heard was true, nothing more. Slowly she rose to her feet, tucking her rosary deep into her robes, and began ambling towards the tavern.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

The other bandits had more than long gone before the others showed up, and any stragglers had already disappeared upon seeing their one brave soul fade into hell. He listened to Suzumi's story, knowing what it's like for a helpless woman out in the wilderness, especially those perverted bandits and dark thieves. However, his lack of sleep really didn't allow him to display his sympathy, not that his long hair allowed anything to be seen anyways. His irritations was a little tickled when he was picking up his sword and shot the thief a look that moved his hair to expose his eye for a split second, letting out a low growl. Within seconds, though, Korius snapped out of it and sighed as he holstered his sword. "Keep your tongue tied during the mornings and late nights. You might just live longer, Leo. Just take what can be sold so we can get some more money. Here's a little extra so you can get some new stones for Suzumi. Take her with you, and don't forget to get some supplies." He placed a hand on Karina to calm her down, "Bandits are spineless. They won't be back here, but just keep an eye out at about high noon. It should take them that long to bring friends, assuming they might have some that have the galls to come after us."

He walked past the small group and into town to get some food for himself for the travel. Korius searched all the different vendors, though there wasn't too many, and only purchased high protein items with thick grains so that he wouldn't have to eat much and still maintain his energy. Being a berserker, he didn't have the luxury of eating lavish or even decent food during travels like others. After he finished shopping, he almost walked right into Kiana, "Oh... sorry. We're going to be heading out soon, so I hope you have everything you need."


Helios sighed as he sat down, having heard what happened to Suzumi, "Really? I'm sorry to hear that happened. But I don't think Korius will-" He stopped short as he felt a cold chill down his spine and heard Korius give coins and instructions to Leo. "Okay, never mind. I guess he sees something that I don't get." Helios got up and offered Suzumi his hand to help her up. After that, he walked over to Karina, smiling a little, "Come on. We should probably get some supplies, too."

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana was still roaming around and her eyes were on the ground at the moment she saw some feet coming straight towards her. She stopped short so that she wouldn't run into them and looked up to find that it was Korius. He managed to stop before bumping into her but he apologized anyway. "Oh, yeah I'm all set." She said, waving her hand in the air in a dismissive gesture. "Already ate and got food supplies while you and the others were, well, whatever you were doing." She rubbed the back of her neck and looked off to the side then directed her eyes at Korius again. "I guess you were up earlier than me. Couldn't sleep?"