Fight on the road way
A little rp battle between some vermin and woodlanders with a bit of a twist and a little bit heavy on the action. Players are Ryak and Liam. Liam belongs to me. This rp took place about 3 weeks ago.
There is a chill in the air this morning as fall slowly becomes winter in the woodland area. There is a brilliant display of color across the trees of Mossflower and the road is littered with fallen leaves. Mid Morning light chases away the shadows that dart in-between the trees of the forest. Off in the distance smoke from the Black Gull Tavern can be seen but it is still an hour, maybe even two away.
Rayk trudges down the road, taking his time. He noted the smoke a little ways back, keen yellowed eyes picking it out against the greyish sky. Now, though, he pauses to watch the smoke drift lazily upwards, adjusting the swords slung over his shoulder. He sighs softly, looking out into the woods on either side of him.
A shrill cry for help echoes across the forrest followed by the usual cries of panic that one normally associates with a small group of beasts facing an emergency
Rayk's ears are as keen as his eyes, and indeed, he does pick out the sounds of fighting coming from up ahead. He makes a low growling sound in his throat, and his brow knits together. Still, he hurries his pace into a trot and heads around the bend, figuring there might be some pay in this, if he plays his cards right. Both of his swords remain sheathed, for the moment
Around the bend off trees the fox finds a group of vermin and a small wagon. The vermin look to be travelers, a family of ferrets with three small children, a weasel merchant, and a pine marten. A female ferret crouches over the prone form of another, possibly her husband. The weasel is trying his best to keep the dibbun ferrets from danger while the pine marten holds his dagger threatenling like a sword to a large group of woodlanders. Unlike their normally peaceful breatheren these mice, shrews, squirrels are armed with pikes, bows, and a few swords. Each wood lander is wearing a red bandanna across their snout to conceal their identity. "Back! Get Back!" Liam the pine marten says.
Rayk slides to a stop as he rounds the corner, sizing the situation up in a few glances. His paw brushes across a pouch at his belt momentarily, and the very slight chink of glass bottles could have been heard, though only by someone standing directly next to the fox. With a slight shake of his head, he moves his paw away from the pouch and reaches up over his shoulder to draw his sword, the steel one, from it's sheath. He holds in in a ready position, yellow eyes narrowing as he focuses in on a squirrel with a bow at the rear of the group of thieves. He lowers his head, presses his ears back against his skull, and charges, aiming a slash for the back of the squirrel's thigh as he gets closer.
""Ye yellow bellied cur!" One of the few beasts holding an actual sword spits at the pine martens feet. The mouse his holding a paw to the side of his cheek where there are fresh claw marks, "We would have let you go had that idiot ferret not tried to fight back." He gestures to the ferret on the ground. The pine marten only grits his teeth, "Yeah...you made that very clear with ambushing us from nowhere and threatening to kill us if we didn't return to Ferravall." The mouse grows hot with anger at the pine martens reply, "You animals can't seem to take a hint to stay out of our woods. Guess we will just have to make an..." All heads turn as a young squirrel makes a cry of pain and falls to the fox's blade across his leg.
Rayk lets the momentum of the attack carry him to the next target, a short, fiery shrew with a rusty hatchet in his paw. The little woodlander barely has time to spin before the fox's blade comes down on his shoulder, crimson droplets flying in an arc as the sword slices through. By now, a nearby mouse, armed with pike, has gathered himself enough to jab at the attacker, and Rayk rolls to the side to avoid the weapon's point.
"Don't just stand there! Get ACK!" Liam lunges himself at the mouse before he can finish the order. As the two class in a duel the other woodlander beasts focus their attention on the fox who is cutting through their ranks. The mouse leader, Ferris, Easily blocks the dagger strokes with his own blade, knocking the pine martens weapon from his grasp. "Blazes!" Liam curses as he dodges the thrust for his belly, letting the mouses momentum carry him past.
Rayk chops the point off of the pike, the old and poor quality wood in the haft giving to the sword's sharp edge. The mouse throws the pike down and grabs a dagger, lunging at Rayk at the same time a squirrel with a curved sword slashes at him from behind. The fox twirls to the side, hitting the wrist of the dagger wielder so that his thrust is knocked off course, and uses his sword to parry, the sound of clashing steel ringing through the air. The squirrel off balance, Rayk follows through with a sideways swipe across the woodlander's abdomen, opening him up between the ribs on his left side.
As Ferris the mouse rights himself after stumbling past the pine marten he turns with his blade flying through the air in a wide arch. Liam leans back from the blade and watches as a tuft of fur is cut from his chin. The wiry pine marten dodges the following thrusts, stabs, and swings with little ease.
The bandits might be poorly armed but they are at least reasonably trained and filled with anger at this fox who just cut through their comrade. There are two beasts left not including Ferris, a grey furred squirrel with a fencing blade and a brown furred mouse armed with a quarter staff. The mouse swings his staff like a base ball bat at the back of Rayk's knee while the squirrel tries to cleave the fox's head off while yelling a savage war cry. In the meantime Liam and Ferris continue to duel. The pine marten rolls to the side, picking up a paw full of dirt as he does, and tossing it at his opponent. While the mouse is blind Liam makes a dash for a weapon dropped by the a fallen attacker.
Rayk takes a moment to bash the mouse who had been carrying the pike in the face with the hilt of his sword before he has to jump aside to avoid the squirrel's reckless slash. He raises his arm to return the favor when the staff catches him in the back of the knee. One leg buckles and throbs with pain, but he uses the other to push away, springing to the side and rolling away with a grunt. He gets into a low ready stance, one paw on the back of his injured knee as he glares at the mouse. The glare is a ruse, however, and he changes direction suddenly, twirling to send three quick blows at the squirrel.
"Come back here you rat!" Ferris shouts at the fleeing pine marten, "There is no escape and I won't be beaten by some imitation squirrel!" Liam laughs as he picks up the axe of the fallen shrew, "Oh, I don't need to beat you, just keep you distracted." Eyes still red from dirt being tossed in them the mouse gasps as he sees the squirrel put up a less than decent fight against the fox. He manages to block each attack, paws shaken by the force of each blow, then raises his sword hi above his head in a downward chop. The second mouse is still trying to catch up with the fox but won't be of any help to his allies for the next few moments.
Rayk ducks under the chop, though it nearly catches him, nipping a tiny bit of fur off one ear. He slashes across the squirrel's knee, crippling him and making him stumble to his knees with a rough shove. "Next time use the pointy end." Rayk mutters grimly to the injured beast, kicking the rapier aside, the thin blade slightly bent from being used for hacking and slashing instead of swift jabs and thrusts. He finishes the squirrel with a heavy stroke to the back of his neck, then raises his bloody sword to point at the mouse with the quarter staff. The fox's amythyst eyes lock on the mouse's, and he growls, daring the brigand to step closer.
The mouse makes a terrified yelp as he backs away from the fox, dropping his staff and running into the woods. "Fox! Look Out!" Liam calls as Ferris switches target. He closes the distance and unleashes a series of almost feral but unfocused attacks with his sword. "Vermin!" the mouse sprays spittle as he yells. Most of what he says is lost in translation and garbled by his own frenzied attack.
Rayk smiles grimly for a moment, but is pulled back into the action by Liam's warning, barely managing to parry to cuts. He pushes the mouse's sword away with a fierce roar, and his eyes glow light fire in the sun as he ripostes, sending a blow at the mouse's shoulder, then swiping at his chest as a follow up.
The mouse manages to block the first blow but can't maneuver his blade in time to catch he second. A look of surprise comes over Ferris as a wound appears on his chest. He shoots the fox a terrible glance of hatred, still wanting to fight but his body unable to continue. He collapses to his knee then gently falls over to his side.
Rayk flicks his blade to the side, rivulets of red flinging off of the honed blade. He surveys his work: four bandits dead as stones, one injured with a broken nose, another squirming on the ground, thigh sliced open from behind, and the last fled from the scene. He turns his eyes to Liam and the other vermin, nudging Ferris' body with his toe. "Care to keep any of them alive?" he asks in a gritty tone, gesturing to the young squirrel archer he attacked first and the mouse he bashed in the face, blood streaming from his nose and down the front of his neck and tunic.
Liam passes a glance at the now very terrified looking woodlanders then to the other vermin. During the fight the weasel has been trying to attend to the fallen ferret with the aid of his wife. "I think they got the picture." As he speaks the squirrel gradually falls unconscious from the open wound to his leg. He doesn't get up again, leaving the remaining mouse the only enemy left. Liam turns to the vermin, "How is he?" The weasel looks up and shakes his head. Liam nods in understanding, choosing to give the ferrets a moment of privacy he walks over to the fox. "Thank you stranger. I think things would have come out differently had you not arrived."
Rayk wipes his sword on the tunic of one of the dead thieves, then resheathes it on his back. "Aye." he responds, looking at the fallen enemies. "They had you dead to rights." He looks like he's about to say more, but he glances at the body of the dead ferret being tended to by what is presumably his family and his lips purse, silent for the moment.
Liam looks at the family of ferrets and sighs. Saying to the fox, "Yeah, dead to rights indeed. Predujiced woodlander savages. That's the second time I've been jumped by them." he shakes his
"And the last." Rayk remarks stoicly. He pauses, then figures, respect for the dead aside, he has to address the subject at some point. "Seems like I did you a favor, marten. Something that might be worth some coin to someone like you."
Liam grins nervously. Not one to anger a beast who single handedly put over five beasts in their graves the pine marten continues with caution, "I...um...don't actually have any money. I'm...dirt poor you see..." he adds quickly, "But I am sure you can sell the loot from these bandits back in ferraval!" Laying next to a tree the remaining mouse spits and coughs, "We...we are not bandits! We are the Militia! And..." he grits his teeth trying to speak with a broken snout, "You v-vermin. You'll pay for this, Dalco will see to it. H-he...aw man this really hurts." He says clutching his snout.
"Rayk rolls his eyes. "If this Dalco doesn't have any better troops than you lot, I think i'll continue to sleep safe at night." he remarks. Turning back to business, he frowns slightly. "Aye.." he says with some disdain, glancing over the weapons and gear of the bandits. A few rusty or damaged weapons, a couple decent pieces of clothing, though most are splattered with blood or shorn by his blade. Maybe a few light coin purses. It's not much. He sighs. "I could have left you to the bandits, I suppose." he says smoothly, hard eyes meeting Liam's.
Liam chuckles, "And I for one am glad you did not." He catches out of the corner of his eye the weasel trying to comfort the ferret and her children as they weep and wail over the loss of a family member. The mouse watches as well, "One less ferret to worry about I gather?" He looks up in time to see Liam pick up a spear and wack him over the head with it. He has a comically shocked expression a the blow renders him out cold. "Wonder why I didn't do that sooner." he sighs, "That dolt ferret nearly got us all killed when he scratched at that mouse but...he was a kind chap. Let me tag along at least with no problems." Liam sighs, "Guess we get to make the long walk back to Ferraval. Thank you for your help fox. I'll stay here and help with my companions but...I'll understand if you want to take off."
Rayk supresses a grumble. If he had been injured, or had needed to dip into the bag at his hip, he'd be more inclined to push for payment, but it's more than apparent there won't be any. "Very well. Try not to get yourself in a mess like this again." he instructs them. With that, he turns on his heel. He only walks as far as the edge of the road, near one of the bodies. There he kneels, laying his paws on his knees. He exhales softly, and closes his eyes, some sort of mediatation, apparently.
Liam watches the fox leave. As thankful as he is to be rescued he is not naive. Those who are able to fight like that tend not to be the most reasonable bunch. Especially the heroic ones. He shrugs, at least he manage to keep the few ferrin coins he has left on him. What the fox doesn't know wont hurt him, or Liam. The pine marten heads back to help out with the ferrets and weasel. So much for traveling south...
