Life Stone

[Solntse]

"I know of other vendors, but none this close."  Sage admitted with a shrug. She wanted desperately to ask them more, but the looks of suspicion she was receiving discouraged her curiosity greatly. She started to turn away, but stopped some inner force seemed to make her stop and quickly blurt out "If you're traveling, and need a cleric, I could help." Quickly Sage snapped her mouth closed, embarrassed by her own forwardness, she looked towards the small group warmth rising in her face. "Sorry." she muttered, "I'll go......" She turned slowly away , her head down, already scolding herself mentally.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

When Helios finished off checking his equipment, he put a hand on his sword, moving his head slightly, "Hey... Korius...?" Korius' ears perked at the mention of his name, and looked at the young swordsman, "Yeah? What's on your mind? Is something-" He was cut short as Helios charged with a swing of his sword to Korius' face. The old wolf leaned off to the side and grabbed the back end of the blade that wasn't swinging towards him. Helios then quickly pulled on the sword to get his feet off the ground, knowing the berserker's strength. Korius then lowered his hand and raised his elbow to block the double kick. He then let go of the sword at the same so the kick was barely felt and Helios ended up more kicking off Korius than kicking him. Not expecting that, Helios ended up on his rear, his sword clanging against the ground.
Korius looked down at Helios with a slightly agitated look on his muzzle, "And what the hell was that about? You want to die or something?" Helios chuckled to himself, shaking, "A hair... not even a single strand of hair..." "Hmmm? What did you say?" Helios sheathed his sword and picked up the rest of his personal supplies. "You pulled your sword on those guys earlier, and I couldn't even get a single hair off your head, or that's covering your face, let alone having you draw your blade. I'm sorry, but I don't think I deserve to be here right now. I'm going to go back and look for my old master. When I see you again, I promise I'll be more worthy of being in the party..." With that, he walked away from Korius and Kiana. Korius merely watched, feeling a little happy as the young warrior wanted to push himself to go beyond his current growth rate.
Korius knew Kiana was going to say something and merely put a hand on her shoulder before she even had a chance to speak, "Let him go. He'll be back when he thinks he's ready."

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana looked over at Helios when he spoke to Korius then had to stumble back out of the way when Helios charged at Korius, sword drawn. "What the hell..." She said as she watched the fight, putting her bow back on over her head. She knew Korius could hold his own so she didn't interfere but she didn't understand why Helios had attacked. When it was done though, she understood that it went along with what she and Korius had been talking about. As Helios started to leave, she thought about saying something about the fact that he would get better with the rest of them, but not in a begging way, and opened her mouth to do so. She snapped it shut right afterwards when Korius placed a hand on her shoulder though and looked at him for a moment before looking back at Helios' retreating figure. "Hopefully the others will come back at least." She muttered. "Wouldn't be to anyone's advantage if everyone bailed now."

[tangletail]

"Sorry that I believe a woman should be given the strength to defend herself and that a man should not use his strength to cause harm to a woman or a child."

Leo had already picked up the touch of hostility in Karina's words. He had already half expected them anyways, and already had a response. “Yes I agree. I see everyone as equal threats, and with same respect. I don't fancy the thought of killing people. It's a waste. But if a child holds a blade to me I will knock him down. But they...” Leo had grimaced once more as his eyes rolled up to the sky. Another unpleasant image came back from the past, “They are abnormally violent. My home land is a war based country... in a civil war... with a dominant population in sergals. A...” The thief stumbled on his words as he tries to recall the term in common. “...Matriarchy if you will. The female sergals are larger than most males, and can have a mixture between a stocky build, or a lanky predatory shape. Usually a good lot of them do join the military with males.”

 
The next bit was then mumbled rather quickly, as if he didn't want to dwell on it to quickly. “Ill tempered, and prone to honor bound cannibalism to opposite parties...usuallywiththedeadbodyorchild.” He clears his throat. And resumes his normal tone. “Unlike you, one does not need to provoke them. They won't threaten you. They will just disembowel you. I've seen it when I was younger. In fact it's a good reason why bi-curiosity is a feasible thought there...” He swallowed a bit, to try and ease his sore and dry throat.

 
“Well, that's not to say they aren't attractive though... even if they aren't exactly docile,” he then looks back to the cleric, and notices her walking away with a sad expression. “Erm... needless to say...” he said aloud in thought. He then leaned closer to the two, and gestured off to her. His facial expression quickly reverting back to it's usual demeanor

 
“Go follow her... try to cheer her up... she seemed like a nice girl.” His smile seemed a bit off... as if he was up to something. And truthfully, he was planning on turning over a sour deal with the gem merchant. He secretly wanted to make sure that the cleric was fully distracted. “While you deal with that... I'm gonna go purchase those gems for ya, Suzumi.”

 
Without waiting for a response, he stood up straight and began to approach the vendor. His eyes weren't shifting around, but he was paying attention to everyone around him. So far... he couldn't see any guards that were in plain view. There were only a small handful of other patrons, all who seemed to busy to pay any mind. The merchant ahead of him had just slipped a handful of gold coins into his coin purse. And to the Serval-kin's own luck. It was practically wide open. The merchant might charge for a fortune, but he's definitely pushing on a statement to his customers.

[Vosur Aekira]

Karina was not liking that Leo wasn't getting what she was saying entirely, but Suzumi had managed to get what she conveyed, so her message wasn't completely lost. She inhaled and looked to where Helios had went to rejoin the others, but she shrugged it off as she looked to the newcomer Pronghorn kin cleric as Leo mentioned he was going to buy the gems for her. She wasn't going to ask him how, nor was she going to try to draw attention to him either, so her attention on the cleric was now two-fold. "We've had some tough scrapes here and there, so someone who could heal injuries might be a good idea to have along, though I'm not the one to ask about recruiting." she spoke, intending for the cleric to hear. "But I bet two-to-one that the one who is in charge of our crew could see the value of a healer."

[Solntse]

Sage picked her head up hopefully, "Really? That's wonderful, well if he'll have me that is. Would you be able to introduce me to him?" she asked. "I promise, I won'y be a burden to you,. Well too much." she added, knowing that she was bound by code never to carry a weapon, let alone fight. "I'm Sage, by the way."

[Suzumibachii]

Suzumi picked up the gems as Leo aid for them using some of the parties money, holding both gems in her hand she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. "We should get back to the others...Besides I really don't want to attune these in the middle of the street." Looking back towards the cleric she smiled softly and nodded at Karina "Having a healer around might be useful." Slipping the gems into the slots on her gloves she smiled and looked at them before slipping a cover over the gems themselves to keep them from prying eyes. Turning towards the gates she started to walk to catch up with Korius and the rest.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Korius sighed as the sun had finally risen fully over the horizon, and marked a full 2 hours after dawn, "Well, then. That should have been ample time. If they still want to come, they'll catch up. Come." He stopped leaning on the tree and turned to head northwest. "We have a long trek ahead. Be ready." The berserker led the way, knowing that the others will soon be with them.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana nodded, believing that Korius was right about the others having enough time to do whatever they might be doing by now. When he started to head off northwest, she followed him. She was already thinking about what they would come against next when Korius told her to be ready. Looking over her shoulder as she reached back to grab her hood, she thought she saw someone approaching from the distance. She didn't say anything since, as Korius had said, the others would catch up if they were coming. As she looked forward again, she continued to pull her hood up over her head.

[tangletail]

Leo approached the jewelry seller with a smile and waved him over after pointing to the set of gems that had been previously selected. Though he had to make sure that one of them was at least a ruby. “What’s your price on these, guy?” Leo asked with an interested tone.

“Ah! An… interesting assortment. Buying these for a lady friend,” the clerk asked after looking the thief over with a grin.
“Something like that,” the thief chuckled. It wasn’t a blatant lie, but it was still a half truth. The thief through an arm over the clerks shoulder in a buddy buddy fashion as he then points off to Suzumi while she was not paying attention.

“Figured we’d get her a set of gems as a welcome back gift before we set off.”

The clerk gave a doubtful smile, as if believing he knew what the thief’s true intentions were. “Ahhhhh….” He began, wagging a finger to the thief before pointing down to the two jewels.“I understand… I understand, these two? For you my friend, two gold coins.”

Leo’s brow rose as he turned to look to the clerk. The cleric was right, this guy most certainly is over charging. But regardless, he knew he had more than enough to pay the cost. Even then he wasn’t truly planning on paying. “Guy, you are busting my balls man,” he sighed shaking his head. And to his own entertainment the clerk looked to him in surprise. Possibly the first time he had to barter with someone who was doing something for a significant.

“Say again?”
“My balls… you are bustin them, sir.”
“How so?”

Leo had to resist smirking, knowing that he got him now. He leaned forward after dropping his arm off the man’s shoulder and sweeping it behind him. The other had moved to pluck up a gem and raise it into the light.  He tilted it just slightly so that the glare of the sunlight would contrast against a hairline fracture. “See this? That’s a crack right there. Now this gem isn’t the best quality I have seen. I can’t even say that you’ve imported this from anywhere given how badly it’s been cut.” He tilted it just a little bit more to examine it’s edges. He brought it closer where it was just in front of the merchant’s eyes.

“The edge’s are bad, and contains chips here and there. The polish was rushed, and you can tell that this was the top portion of a larger rock that had been struck by a hammer.”

The merchant’s gaze had been following the thief’s hand movements as he tilts it and pulls it in and out of the light before setting the ruby down to pick up the topaz. He tossed it up into the air to let it glent in the light, and caught it just eye level between the both of them. “And this! This is in no better condition, Man. Hey guy, I know you are trying to make a profit here but you are just pulling some sort of robbery. This is lopsided. Whom ever did this must have been drunk when he was cutting the jewel.”

He set it back down, and looked back to him. Both hands on the counter. “Well I am in a rush… try offering me a better deal,” Leo asked, his stance a bit more slackened now. His eyes meeting the merchant’s as he thinks up a deal.

-----

“Pleasure doing business with you,” the serval-kin chimed just as Suzumi picked up the two purchased gems. The merchant who was also smiling, handed him back his change, giving Leo a small wink.

“Good luck with the lassy, cat,” the merchant laughed as the Thief turned to leave.
“Thanks,” Leo laughed as he soon joined the group. Once he found Korius, Leo tossed him back the bag of coins he was given. The weight of the bag turning out to be heavier than it originally was. If opened, the coins he had been originally given were still there, with a few silver coins being the new addition. The thief had actually managed to pickpocket enough gold coins from the merchant, and used the same coins to buy the two gems for Suzumi. So effectively, the feline had actually stolen two gems and a few silver coins in broad daylight.

"The cleric was right. That merchant was trying to bleed his customers dry."

[Vosur Aekira]

The fox-kin was watching a lot of this happen, but definitely made no motion to make nothing appear out of the ordinary to the merchant while Leo was working on securing the gems for Suzumi. Once they were done and Suzumi had what she would need, Karina looked up to the sky and then back to the others. "I think we better get a move on to catch that berserker. He's definitely in a hurry to get on the move, and we should be too." she spoke before she made her stride a bit faster and longer to speed herself up quite a bit but not to leave the others behind. It took them a while to get back to the meeting point, but she saw Korius and Kiana start to walk off in the distance. "Pick up the pace you three!" she spoke before starting to go into a jog to catch up to the others.

[Solntse]

Sage walked along swiftly with the others, her thin but powerful legs carrying her easily along the road. A mixture of nerves and excitement coursed through her making her wanting to both prance around like a child, and flee in terror, at once. Breathing deeply she fought to keep calm, instead going over the different possibilities of what could happen when she met the leader of this small group she now seemed to be traveling with.

[Suzumibachii]

A smile spread over her face as she watched Karina pick up the pace. "H..hey wait for me." she said as she herself broke out into a brisk jog her movements a little awkward as she kept her hands in her pockets holding on tightly to the gems. "Well I would be in a hurry aswell after all he did take out that bandit." She shuddered a little as she remebered just how easily he had done that but now wasn't the time to think about that

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Korius' ears perked as the running footsteps of the rest of their group could be heard in the distance, "See? They know they have to hustle. And it sounds like they might have brought another as well. " He heard the unusual running steps of someone else, and from the sounds of it, either a magic user or possibly a healer. The old wolf turned his head when the others finally caught up, "So who is our 'guest'?" After catching the bag of coins, he noticed it was heavier than when he last gave it to the Serval, and he eyed the thief, "When we come back this way, you're giving that merchant his money back. You may be a thief, but we need your skills for more practical uses. This money will end up attracting unwanted attention."

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana's ears twitched as she actually heard faster footsteps behind herself and Korius, curious as to why she thought she heard an extra set of feet. She believed if they were being chased, they would be moving faster then they were at the moment, so she figured someone else wanted to join the group. She turned her head at the same time as Korius to look back at the others around the side of her hood while they kept walking. Her eyes stopped on the Pronghorn-kin with the others for a moment, gathering that she was a cleric from how she was dressed. Her eyes shifted to each of the others as well then she turned her head forward again while she waited for them to answer Korius' question.