PM to join No Rest for the Needy (Brandon, Turrin)

[Khara]

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50th of Spring, 515AV
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Khara still hated the market. Even if it had returned to it's more agreeable outdoor location of the Courtyard of the Sky, the place was still crowded to an extent that made the Chiet girl uncomfortable. Crowds had once been a strange sort of comfort to her, they had granted a certain anonymity by being one in the masses; that was gone now, replaced by threats perceived just beyond the people she could clearly see. Becoming one to the festive atmosphere was near impossible, but that didn't mean that she didn't want to try, especially now with life having given her a little more reason to try and be courageous.

A hand reached up under her loose hair, coming to rest against the back of her neck as Khara looked over the various sweets and candies that were available at one of the stalls. She wasn't shopping for anything in particular, but that was the point of this entire exercise. The Chiet could make herself go to Market Day when she needed something, but she missed the aimless wandering that a day off of work could provide. While she rather that she had company, fate had proven to be unkind and make it be one of the very few cruel days that cropped up now and again where she actually didn't have work while her significant other unfortunately did. She did, however, tell him what she had planned and had promised to take her hunting knife with her. It wasn't going to do much good in a real situation, but a quick slice at a hand and a covert slip through the crowd might have been enough of a deterrent, or at least buy enough time to at least get her back somewhere that was far safer should the wost occur.

The paranoid concern seemed hardly necessary, though. While busy, the market was fairly quiet. The warmer weather seemed more than enough to cause the overall mood at the market to be fairly jovial; even the merchants didn't seem to mind the more lackadaisical viewing of their wares as compared to the sometimes hurried transactions and urges to either purchase or move along.

A small frown tugged at Khara's expression as she realized she wasn't quite sure what sort of candy to buy. It had been a good idea, but she couldn't quite think of what she could actually purchase that could be shared and enjoyed with the person she had in mind. Really need to get him to try more things, she thought to herself; a small laugh followed in it's wake.

Vowing to return after she had seen more of what the market had that day, Khara looked up and started at a familiar sight. It was hard to not notice someone without the typical various shades of red hair that the scout was used to seeing, and while Brandon had apparently taken to dressing like an Inarta, he didn't quite blend in with them as much as she figured he would rather he did. Or maybe he liked standing out from the crowd a bit, it was hard for her to tell.

Khara made her way past the few individuals between them, questioning her intent to pester the man with every step she took, even if it did seem like the sort of thing a normal person would do on a normal day. She knew that her attempt to be discreet would probably be for naught but still she came to a stop at the same market stall that he was visiting, looking over the items for sale before she glanced at him from the corner of her eye.

"Enjoying the market?" She asked with a secretive smile. "I've been told that it can be a bit overwhelming if you aren't used to it."

"Nari" | "Common" | "Pavi"

[Brandon Blackwing]

The second market day the bat had experienced in the volcanic city of redheaded bird-lovers was yet another day off. A free day meant an opportunity to roam the city and earn some extra cash. It wasn’t that he had a desire for money or anything, but in this world, no matter what city you were in, money was necessary to buy whatever you wanted . Of course, stealing was another option, but that wasn’t always a good idea. Especially so in a city where you stood out. Palming items was out of the question, and besides, it was just plain stupid to go browse the wares of a merchant for a couple chimes and steal the item a tick later.

Picking pockets was something else entirely. It was easy to do, and the risk of being discovered –if done correctly- was but little. The crowd was dense and people weren’t usually aware of the predators hiding among them. There were many tactics used by said predators; bumping into someone was one, brushing past them lightly another. In groups, pickpockets could pull difficult scams with ease, being less subtle and yet more. Steal the goods, pass them onto another member of the group and get rid of the evidence right away. Brandon was alone, but the bat was not just any thief.

Brandon’s touch was light and his fingers quick and nimble; he didn’t quite need to distract the target by bumping into them, just walking past was more than enough for him to snatch a wallet. He wasn’t stealing yet though, no, it was a little too early for that. He didn’t quite know the crowd, their vigilance. Would they be paying attention to their co-shoppers or not? He had to observe first, and for that, he could just as well browse the wares a bit; there was no use in just taking money if he couldn’t spend it yet. And he wouldn’t have to minimize his presence either; not that he liked standing out, but it was taxing to change your own behavior and be conscious about it.

The voice that came from behind him was recognized immediately, and the bat turned around to face his unexpected company. “Could have been better,” the bat replied, “I don’t really like standing out all that much. I’m attracting some unwanted attention.” He could fix that though, so it wasn’t all that bad. “But the market’s not all that intimidating. I take it you’ve never been to Lhavit? The Azure market is what you’d call overwhelming; crowded enough so you can actually walk over the people’s heads.”

“But what are you doing here? Just browsing or are you really searching for something to buy for yourself? Or for Zhol?” In the meantime, the bat decided he’d had enough of the stares and planned to make himself less visible. It was just a matter of body language, if you wanted to stay undetected, you had to send a message to the others that you weren’t interesting. Brandon usually stood proudly, radiating confidence. It made people aware of his presence, in the same way that Endal walking by made heads turn. Even if people did not spot them, some others surrounding them would, and that might be noticed, creating a chain reaction. The opposite was true as well; appear to be timid, uninteresting and not confident at all, and people wouldn’t pay you any attention. Well, unless they were actually looking for you specifically.

Khara was actually rather good at passing by unnoticed, even though she might not be aware of it. It was because of her behavior of course, she didn’t even have to pretend to be uninteresting and not worth their attention. On the other hand, it kind of made her uncharismatic. Not that that was particularly bad or so, but if she were to lead a band of scouts, she probably wouldn’t have much people listening to her, unless she’d earned their respect somehow. But whatever, it wasn’t like much of that mattered to most people. Not even the bat himself cared much about it.

[Khara]

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Khara could only shake her head at Brandon's question about having been to Lhavit, though the thought of a market that was as crowded as he spoke of almost made her glad she actually hadn't ever been to such a place. When Wind Reach's Market Days were forced inside the Stained Glass Gallery during the Winter season it could become somewhat similar to how Brandon described, though they did try to keep the place from becoming too crowded with a queue waiting outside the doors. If the market was always like that, though... Khara couldn't help but feel a slight shudder run through her at the prospect.

Strangely, despite addressing Brandon first, and his question not being all that untypical in this sort of situation, it still managed to catch her off guard and Khara became somewhat more self conscious of her reasons for being at the market in the first place.

"Me?" She began as her hands fell in front of her and began to gently twist and fold upon each other. "Oh I... I just came to look today, I think. It's been awhile since I have done such a thing."

She wasn't sure why that admission brought on even further sense of discomfort. Maybe it was because it opened up too many questions that Khara didn't particularly want to answer, or at least she felt it did. Not that she figured Brandon would pry, he seemed the sort that wouldn't attempt to pull personal information out of you so long as you offered the same courtesy. Her mind was off balance though, more from just being at the market in general than anything Brandon had said, but it didn't lend for keeping quiet very well, especially not when Khara had the bad habit of speaking more than was necessary when her nervous nature got the best of her.

"I think maybe we both are having more attention than we want, though. I wonder if there's some sort of way of disguising to blend in more with a crowd, make it so like when you wear certain colors to be less seen in the wilderness. Or maybe there is some way to vanish completely..."

The thought, as well as her somewhat inane babbling were thankfully interrupted by a disturbance a few stalls down. A few angry shouts and some sort of scuffle seemed to be taking place but soon it seemed like people were rushing by them, pushing their way through the crowd in an attempt to put as much space between themselves and whatever was taking place. Fights broke out in the market sometimes, but it was a rare occurrence and people didn't tend to run from that sort of thing.

Khara was more curious than fearful, though and she watched as a few others hurried past before she went to her toes to try and see what was causing the fuss. "Looks like someone decided to make this trip not so boring for you."

"Nari" | "Common" | "Pavi"

[Brandon Blackwing]

Khara wasn’t so sure of herself, it seemed; her hands twisted nervously, and even the words she used to reply to the bat’s question were unsure. “I just came to look … I think.” That wasn’t quite confident sounding, not at all. But that was a pretty normal answer since it was Khara who provided it, and the fidgeting was typical for the chiet girl as well. Always nervous, always timid, except in the wilds, there she was somewhat more confident. Maybe. Perhaps she just felt more at ease with no-one around –or not many people anyway. Or maybe she just felt more comfortable out in the unforgiving, for whatever the reason.

Either way, it gave the bat an answer, one that might not be all that correctly interpreted as he didn’t quite know Khara all that well yet, and he might read between the lines the wrong way. To the bat, her answer said: “I want to buy something, but I don’t know what yet, so maybe I’ll just look around.” Or something along those lines, but he wouldn’t ask, he was pretty satisfied with that response. And besides, it wasn’t all that important either, just some small talk. He nodded, “Ah, me too. I used to have a lot more free time to just roam about the city and go on strolls. Here though, I’m always busy, busy, busy…” He waved a hand in annoyance. “And still I don’t earn half of what I got in Lhavit.” A sigh then. “And all the good things are way too expensive!” he scowled, “I mean, have you heard how much they charge for a bow? Seventy five Pinions! Seventy. Five. I know you people go all crazy over the things, but that much? That’s just ridiculous!”

A hand came up to stroke some of his locks of hair back, and scratched his head absentmindedly. Of all the problems he had expected he would run into when he’d been lectured by Zhol, he hadn’t expected it to be the monetary system. Money wasn’t all that important in Wind Reach, as you got food, shelter and clothes –the essential things- by just working and doing your job. However, they did also pay you, in case you wanted to buy some stuff from the market for whatever reason. But, the problem was the pinion itself. There was no smaller coins, no way to buy something that would have cost a topaz Kina in Lhavit here without paying ten times that price. And that was seriously frustrating. You had to buy more so you wouldn’t waste any coin. Wind Reach was a petching conman’s paradise.

“Blend in, you say?” the thief pondered for a moment, then shrugged, giving the girl a sly smile. “I think you’re doing a pretty decent job; the only problem is that you’re too fidgety,”he spoke, actually speaking while she did, not realizing she didn’t stop her babbling and probably didn’t hear him either. But the scout was right, they were actually standing out, though that was probably more because of the bat than because of the other chiet. It was time to become more or less invisible, and the bat went ahead and did just that. He dipped his head a bit, making himself smaller, and started to slouch a little, trying to appear more timid. His body was kept calm and almost still, the movements he did make becoming minimal. He stopped making eye contact with people, as eye contact could draw the attention of people who weren’t even looking at him to him. It was a second skin of sorts, a way of behaving the bat used almost every time when picking pockets. He became a nobody, someone that nobody noticed and only rarely was found to be interesting. Body language was a powerful tool of communication, and the message Brandon was sending to everyone else was that he was a waste of time. It was a message intercepted by the brain, and the same brain told the body to ignore the sender of the message. Subconscious manipulation of some kind.

Then, people started making a ruckus; screaming, shouting and some even ran off. Brandon frowned, his head turning in the direction of the scene –which seemed to be around a stall of some vendor- and was hit by a terrible smell. A stink that was utterly disgusting and vomit enticing. It was strong enough to feel as if he was actually hit by a physical fist or something; Brandon bent over gasping for breath, pinching his nose shut and feeling a gag reflex in his throat. A little bit of his last meal returned to his mouth, acidic, disgusting. It was swallowed immediately, and the bat recovered, the first wave having been the worst. The scent was still there though, and while the thief could hardly stand it, he endured, breathing through his mouth.

It was terrible; a smell of rotten and decomposing things. A blend of disintegrating flesh, some mold, leaking body fluids that had dried up and crawling bugs having a feast. Digestive fluids of those bugs spread their scent as well, subtle and yet responsible for the brunt of the disgusting smell. “By Dira’s bloody scythe! What in the world is this?! Do you smell this? Don’t tell me you can’t! There’s no way you can miss it!” the bat breathed at the girl standing on her toes. Interesting? In a way, yes; disgusting it may be, but the bat’s curiosity was piqued and he started weaving through the crowd, slipping past people and through gaps like mercury.

With a lot of redheads trying to get away from the scene as fast as possible, it took a bit longer than expected, but when he did, the bat was shocked. A fruit stand was completely ravaged; lemons, melons and other kinds of fruit were scattered all over the place, crates flipped and destroyed, the vendor himself staring at the one responsible in horror. One woman was on the ground, scrambling away backwards, unable to avert her gaze, face twisted in something between disbelieve and agony. An Inartan male was being choked, hands trying to loosen the grip of the hand on his throat, feet kicking wildly. His attacker was on top of him, both lying on the floor, but it was obvious who had the upper hand. The abomination had.

It was dressed like a dek, a ruined lontev hanging in tatters around its body. Brandon couldn’t even tell if it had been a male or female; it was hard to tell by sight, and the scent of either was replaced by that of corpse. It had only one arm, and maggots crawled on, in and out of the stump where the other had been, a legion of flies circling the eerie figure as if they were its personal guard. At some places the flesh was torn off, others were half eaten and all in all, it was a very frightful image to look at. “What in Dira’s name-?!” Brandon exhaled, barely audible, taking a single step forward towards the wrestling pair, the man’s eyes pleading, the woman’s voice a sobbing yell that could have been a call for help, but the chirps themselves held no meaning to the thief. The sound of them did however, the tone, the desperation. It was a call for help.

[Khara]

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There was a tick or so of absolute blissful confusion at Brandon's outburst before the breeze shifted and suddenly the reaction didn't seem so outlandish anymore. The sudden overwhelming smell of rotting flesh caused her to stagger back and brought a hand up to cup over her mouth and nose. Though as Brandon began to weave his way through the crowd, Khara couldn't help but follow, either by curiosity or not wanting to leave the familiar face now that she had found it. He was faster than her, moved far more fluidly through the crowd that seemed insistent on barring the girl's way and knocking her about. She caught more than one uncomfortable jab with an elbow on the way but finally came to where the crowd had cleared to stand back away from the disturbance.

What she saw almost made Khara quickly turn and try to sprint away herself except that she couldn't quite seem to force herself to move; shock and fear freezing her in place. It all was too familiar, not in exact particulars, but the smell, the grey skin, the unnatural looking movements - the creature that may have once been a Dek was far smaller and didn't possess more than what seemed to be two eyes, but it harkened back to the monstrosity that had attacked the rescue party she had been part of all too well. Except it was different. Where the towering creature had been dry this thing seemed almost the exact opposite, body fluids and who knew what else making it glisten sickeningly in the sunlight. That too was different, there was no smoke coming from where Syna's rays struck it, just a haze of insects that buzzed lazily in a horrific contrast to the violent blows it rained down on the man it had pinned once it seemed to grow bored of attempting to choke the life out of its victim.

Every instinct was screaming at her to flee but she caught site of Brandon stepping forward and almost immediately she was met with a stubborn and demanding thought. You've faced something like this before, Sparrow. Who else can say that here? You have to help. But what could she do? She didn't have her bow, didn't have the same ability as Zhol to conjure fire - not that the gooey impossible mess of a person looked like it would be effected so much by it - so what possible help could a simple Chiet like her give to those who clearly needed it?

Petch. Don't you dar- the thought couldn't even be finished as Khara quickly pulled her hunting knife free from it's small scabbard at her side. "Hey! Leave them alone!"

Okay, so technically Khara had every right to order one of the drudge around but those rules sort of went right out the nest when the person couldn't possibly be actually alive or at the very least extremely ill and out of their mind, didn't they? She wasn't even the sort to do that kind of thing! She wasn't this brave, wasn't this confrontational! She should have run, should have tried to hide, maybe should have gone and tried to find Zhol or Azira or Sira or... Okay, maybe you'll be lucky. Maybe it'll be too busy. Maybe you can still sneak away. Maybe it'll- Her heart froze as the thing slowly turned it's head towards her, moving far more than ever should have been allowed in some sort of strange reminder of how an owl swiveled its view.

All thought immediately emptied from her mind and her fingers tightened around the hilt of the knife on instinct more than anything else. A single word of run! tried to form but was carried away before the order could make it to her limbs.

"O-or n-not," she stammered apologetically.

"Nari" | "Common" | "Pavi"

[Brandon Blackwing]

Brandon's reaction was far slower than Khara's; the bat just stood there wit a disgusted kind of fascination, watching, observing. It was a scene that drew him in, something horrible and repulsing, but the thief was unable to avert his gaze. How did that thing move? Why was it walking around, attacking people? This was obviously a corpse; the scent of decay made that quite clear, as did the swarm of insects buzzing around it. But how? Didn't all souls of the dead get reaped by Dira? Didn't she guide them to their destination? How could something without a soul -a dead body, a corpse- possibly be running rampart? Was it the vile discipline of Animation? Was it something else? A disgruntled ghost perhaps? A vengeful spirit?

The thought alone was enough to turn the bat into a pale version of himself. Please don't let it be a ghost! I can't handle ghosts! The last -and first- time the thief had come across a ghost, he'd been thrown around and scarred for life. The encounter had been terrifying, frightening and worst of all, traumatic. What could he possibly hope to accomplish when facing a ghost? He couldn't fight it, he couldn't run. But, even if it was a spirit, it was chained to a body right now, trapped in a bundle of decaying flesh. Brandon couldn't combat ghosts, but he could beat down a rotting pile of flesh. Destroying the corpse might just free the ghost from its prison, maybe it'd be able to go to Dira then? Or maybe he'd piss it off really bad.... It was a gamble.

But maybe it wasn't a ghost, maybe it was just a vile animator working his magic, playing with a corpse -that rotation of the neck was impossible to perform when alive. Either way, destroying it was a priority; to free the ghost if there was one trapped in the body, or to destroy what was such a blatant blasphemy to both Dira and Kihala. Having made up his mind, the bat exploded into action, using the opening created by Khara's distraction to dash at the monstrosity, then jumping forward and bridging the rest of the distance with a flying kick. It hit the rotting dek in the middle of its chest, the impact sending it tumbling off its victim and rolling over the ground while the bat landed like a cat.

However, it didn't quite seem to be effective, the corpse getting back to its feet slowly, head turning back to a normal position. Brandon was a bit confused, he was sure he'd felt something crack upon impact, and it hadn't been something of his. That thing's ribs had to be bruised -at the very least- but it stood back up as if nothing ever happened. Don't tell me... That corpse doesn't feel pain? Ah, of course, it has no soul, of course it doesn't feel pain... That was quite a problem, Brandon's fighting style was based around inflicting severe pain to slowly incapacitate his opponents, something that wouldn't work on this abnormality at all. There were multiple ways to make sure an opponent was unable to fight though; one was knocking them out, but Bran doubted that would work. He could try breaking all its limbs, and its spine? Without the support of bones, the body would collapse, right? So that should work... in theory.

Wasting no more time as the corpse approached the bat far more quickly than he had expected, Brandon assumed a defensive stance, planning to counter whatever the abomination threw at him. It was a straight punch with the momentum of the dash behind it, but that was a stupid thing to do. Those attacks were easily dodged, especially so when the bat could clearly see the muscle movement preceding the blow. Brandon moved out the way slightly, turning his back at his foe in the meantime, grabbing the arm with both hands tightly, ignoring the disgusting sticky goo, and brought his hips below the corpse's. Then he unbent his knees, and bent his torso forward, pulling the arm over his shoulder, dragging the corpse along. Usually with a throw, this would be more than enough; the point was to floor and wind your opponent, but this time that wouldn't be effective at all. So the bat whipped this arms down violently, slamming the body into the floor as hard as he could, the momentum of the corpse's attack added to his violent throw.

Whether that had actually broken some of the decomposing bones or not, the bat didn't know, but neither did he care. The monstrosity was already coming back up, and Brandon rushed in, grabbing the head with both hands and twisted it swiftly, pleased to hear the snap of its neck, content to feel the limpness of it. With its head now backwards on its body and limp neck, the corpse was dropped, and the bat quickly stepped back, panting and praying to Dira that was enough to stop it. He glanced at his dirty hands for a tick, then flung the goo off them, but the stink remained. Gods damn it, I'll have to wash them ten times to get rid of that smell.

[Turrin]

It was sunny day in the market place with a soft warm breeze blowing over the heads of the Inarta as they went about their daily duty in the market square. As Turrin walked into the open air market place, the endal felt the warm touch of Syna's rays on his tan skin.

It was a sunny day in the open air market place with a soft warm breeze blowing through the plaza square. As Turrin walked into the market place, the needed to see the blacksmith, so he could commission some armor piercing arrowheads. After the incident with the poachers and the Beast, the myrian needed to upgrade his arsenal for future threats. As Turrin walked through the crowd square, most people, especially lower castes, got out of the way of him, but he was occasionally stopped by a fellow endal here and there. Eventually, he got to the stall called The Hot Hammer. There was a small line, so the endal decided to wait his turn. As Turrin waited in the warm spring sun, the endal could feel the talon sword scabbard on his waist start to slid down his waist, so the endal adjusted the tightness of his belt. Normally, the endal wouldn't bring his talon sword to market, but lately, he hasn't felt safe without it. Maybe he was being paranoid, but a part of him felt like he was being watched in the city as of late. Turrin watched the customers in front of him were just picking up and paying for their orders, so he only had to wait ten chimes instead of half a bell. When he got to the counter, Turrin looked at the merchant and greeted him with a smile, “Beautiful market day to do business isn't it?”

The merchant looked up at the sky and said with a smile of his own, “You couldn't ask for a better spring day, Endal. My name is Tordon. What can I help you with?”

Turrin looked down at the arrowheads, picked up on of the barbed metal tips, and asked simply, “I need a arrow that can pierce through metal armor and thick hide? Do you make those type of arrowheads here?”

The merchant said with a laugh, “You are in Wind Reach! Are you thinking of invading Syliras with your new arrows, Endal?”

Turrin laughed out loud and started to rub his chin at the thought of leading a army of endal in a invasion of the greatest city in Mizahar. The thought of such a battle made the myrian blood start to warm with delight in the thought of dying on the ramparts of Syliras. It would be a glorious death, but he doubt the Inarta had the stomach for such a battle. The endal just shook his head sadly, “Unfortunately, I will just have to settle for poachers and Zith for now...”

Turrin was sure that Tordon actually believed him when he said that he thought about invading a great city like Syliras. The endal never even been to the eastern city, but he had heard stories of the great city in the east with it's knights and large walls. Turrin had to admit tough that he often thought about different ways of invading cities other than Wind Reach when he was alone in the woods and left to his thoughts. It was a way for the warrior to pass the time. The merchant gave the endal a look of disbelief and said with a chuckle, “Anyways... yes I can make them for you, but they won't be done till next market day. Will you be paying, or should I just charge the city?”

Turrin knew the merchant must had dealt with endal in the past, so it didn't phase the man one bit about just giving something to them if they needed it. The myrian didn't do this vary often, but he decided not to disappoint the man and said with nod, “I think the city can pick up the bill, for it's defense.”

The merchant pulled a piece of parchment out and a quill and said simply, “Alright, I am going to need your name, Endal, and how many arrowheads do you need made for you.”

Turrin said with nod, “My name is Endal Turrin Aponivi of the War Hawks, and I need you to make me twenty armor piercing arrowheads. Could you bring them to the Fletcher to get them fitted into arrows..?”

“Alright, let me talk to my blacksmith. It will be about five chimes, Endal Turrin.”

When Tordon went to talk to his blacksmith, Turrin decided to look at the other arrow heads on display. Setting down the barbed arrowhead, he picked up a arrowhead that was covered in a leather sheaf. Pulling the sheaf off, he saw the arrowhead was a razor edge broad tipped arrow. The endal eyes lite up like a kid in a candy store and thought of all the destruction that he could do to his enemies with this particular arrowhead. Putting the sheaf back on the arrowhead, the myrian contemplated having Tordon make him a few of the razor tipped arrowhead too, but the myrian knew that if he wanted those specialty arrows. The endal would have to shell out the pinions for them. Thinking to himself, One day, I will have a quiver full of you, but not today my friends...”

Suddenly, Turrin heard a screaming and yelling behind him, so the endal turned around and saw people running away in a panic from the center of the market. Swearing to himself at his luck, Turrin started to stalk in the direction of the commotion. When he got closer to the center of the commotion, the myrian could smell the pungent odor of rotting flesh in the air. It was similar to the smell if you left dead rabbit in the sun for days. It was a awful smell, but what made it worse was the increase of flies in the area.

As the myrian got closer, he saw two familiar faces. One was the timid game scout named Khara who seemed to be staring wide eyed at the second familiar face Brandon Blackwing. Turrin looked at the Brandon and saw a body of a dead dek lying on the ground at Brandon's feet. Immediately, Turrin thought Brandon killed the dek in a argument, but the endal looked at the condition of the body and saw that it was already decomposing. If Brandon murdered the dek, the body wouldn't be this badly decomposed after a few minutes. Turrin looked first to Khara than to Brandon and said simply with all the power of his authority in his voice, “Why is there a dead body at you feet, Brandon Blackwing?”

Turrin knew Brandon didn't kill the man in cold blood, but he wanted a explanation from the foreigner. However, the dead man wasn't going to allow Turrin to get his explanation as the body with the limp head stood up and bull rushed Brandon. When the endal saw the dead man stand up and run in Brandon's direction, he quickly unsheathed his talon sword and thought to himself, By the Caiyha's bosom, what is that thing?

ledgerUsed Endal Status to get (20) Armour Piercing Arrows

[Khara]

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It hadn't been surprising that she didn't move at all as Brandon had launched himself at the creature, and she may have been overcome by a feeling of being entirely useless if not for finding herself more captivated by watching the way the outsider handled the monstrosity. His movements were graceful yet powerful and Khara couldn't help but envy the ease and speed with which Brandon caused the corpse to drop to the ground.

Slowly she returned her hunting knife to it's scabbard as her eyes flitted between Brandon and the horror at his feet. Khara had never really seen a use for learning any sort of physical combat, she never had any aims to visit the Fighting Pits and if any sort of altercation ever came up the girl doubted she'd have the option of actually defending herself. Now though, she began to question that belief, if nothing else maybe he could teach her how to actually do something with her hunting knife if this sort of impossible situation came up again; they were rather unfortunately becoming something that wasn't entirely rare, after all.

The fear that had gripped those that had remained to watch seemed to abate as well and slowly the remaining Inarta began picking up items that had been knocked from carts and the man that had initially been attacked was helped to his feet by his companion before the two scrambled away, probably to tend to his wounds. Confused and nervous whispers hushed, however, as another figure strode out from the crowd. It only took a quick glance for Khara to realize why, it was an Endal, though perhaps thankfully one she knew. The authority in his voice made her uncertain about any relief that would come from Turrin's presence though. Khara supposed it depending on what sort of mood the Endal was in, but she knew how this looked and the fact that she was standing right in the mess of it wasn't a good thing, either. Though, he didn't seem too accusatory and well, it was obvious that Brandon didn't entirely cause the demise of the drudge...

Her line of thought stumbled as horrified gasps around them and the sound of people shifting away from the scene again brought Khara's attention away from Turrin back towards the corpse just in time to watch as it got to it's feet again. No, that's impossible, Khara thankfully kept the rather obviously false statement to herself, the only outward display of the thought coming in the form of the subtlest shake of her head in disbelief.

She needed to run; needed to get away from this scene as soon as possible; needed to go find help; needed to arm herself like Turrin had; needed to keep that thing at a distance; needed to... How it was that her instincts went from fleeing to fighting Khara had no idea, but she wasn't exactly questioning it in that moment either as she decided her hunting knife was no good in helping be rid of the abomination. Her eyes settled on something far more familiar, a shortbow that was abandoned amidst the chaos along with a quiver of half spilled arrows. Whether it belonged to one of the early victims of the attack, or one of the merchants, or had been left behind by one of those who ran; Khara didn't exactly care. She doubted they would really mind if she borrowed it for a bit to help Wind Reach be kept safe.

The Chiet scrambled the few steps towards the weapon and scooped it up, looping the quiver's strap around her arm as she grabbed one of the scattered arrows from the ground. It was only when she had the arrow nocked and drawn back that she remembered how little use the typical Inartan weapon had been on the lumbering creature out in The Unforgiving. This one was different, though; and if nothing else hopefully it would provide enough of a distraction that Brandon and Turrin could dismember the petching thing. That was, if she could avoid hitting the two of them.

For now, though, she had a clear shot and let the arrow fly. The creature staggered backwards, but only a step, as the projectile embedded itself in the once-Dek's soft lower abdomen. Khara had been aiming for it's chest, though, something more towards where it's heart should be. Not that she figured it would make much of a difference, what with the unnatural angle it's head lolled at. Her intentions were met, thankfully, as the walking corpse bent forward a touch as if it would look downward at the arrow jutting out from it's stomach if it's head was still properly attached to it's neck. It wasn't much, but at least the horror's attention wasn't on the Endal or the two Chiet for the moment.

"Nari" | "Common" | "Pavi"

[Brandon Blackwing]

A familiar voice reached Brandon's ears with some sort of implied accusation hidden in it, or at least Brandon though so. “Ah, Turrin,” the bat spoke, turning his head towards the endal, “I wish I knew, but I have no idea what it is doing here myself. Attacking people, it see-” A sudden sound made the thief's head snap back, eying the source. A curse left his mouth as he reacted, trying to step out of the way of the incoming dek corpse that moved way faster than he'd thought it could. Damn, I should have kept an eye on it! Should have known that wasn't enough to stop it.

The impact of the shoulder ramming his stomach was largely absorbed by tensing his muscles, but off balance because of his attempt to evade, the bat was sent sprawling, tumbling on his back. Momentum was one of the thing Brandon was used to exploit though, and he quickly made use of it, managing to roll backwards and use his hands to launch himself a bit further back, landing in a crouch. The corpse was still moving in his direction though, however it seemed to be uncertain of where exactly the bat was, and approached slower.

Brandon didn't know if it still functioned like a normal person; seeing with its eyes, hearing with its ears and whatever the hell was there, or not, but if it was, it would explain a great deal. With its head backwards on its shoulders and hanging limp, it would be hard to determine where its enemies could be found. A sudden arrow did stop its approach though, and the thing bent over a little, as if to examine the projectile that had buried itself in its belly. The thief frowned; could that thing feel? It did not add up; it would have reacted better to his kick earlier, and to his throw too. Or maybe it just knew something had entered its body partly? Or maybe it only didn't feel pain, but it still could feel other things? Whatever it was, it wasn't really worth breaking his head over; there was one way to take it down, and that was more than enough.

“Turrin,” the bat yelled at the endal, “dismember it! Sever all body parts, just giving it a couple wounds won't help at all.” Then his eyes traced the arrow back to its source, which turned out to be no-one else than Khara. “Khara, keep it busy. Create openings for us to attack; we'll deliver one attack each time, then withdraw. Then you shoot, we attack again, and so on, alright?” The dek was moving again, the bat heard- and saw out of the corners of his eyes, following the sound of his voice. In response, he began to stealthily move around. “You heard that, Turrin?” Though, it would be best to have something extra ready, just in case- one of the onlookers would do nicely.

Were those a couple yasi standing in the crowd? They seemed to be near the upper age limit of the yasi caste though, so maybe he was wrong... guessing ages was not his forte anyway. “You there,” he shouted and pointed at the small group, “get me some lamp oil and a lit candle, quickly!” Of course, there was a reason for this. Dismembering had appeared to be an effective way to deal with animated things, so it would probably work on corpses as well. And burning... well, the bat had burned down the Animation Studio in Lhavit, and not one abomination had survived the fire, so he guessed that would do nicely. If there was nothing, it couldn't move anyway. “Turrin, get ready! I'll draw its attention, you strike!” he warned, starting to bounce on both feet, getting into his rhythm and preparing to maneuver fast and swiftly. The dead dek was getting closer; had it figured out the pattern in which he was moving? Could it actually think at all? No matter, he didn't need to know.

“Now!” Brandon exclaimed, starting to move immediately, bounce-stepping quickly into the monstrosity's reach, one arm drawn back. For a brief moment, he planted both feet on the ground, twisting his hips and torso to create maximum rotational power, and smashed his fist into the creature's ribs. Immediately the bat started moving around again, first to the side, then backwards as couple times, fairly certain he'd attracted the dead body's attention. If it could sense an arrow piercing its body, it could definitely feel a punch clattering its ribs. Hopefully it would work, hopefully that thing couldn't quite use it's brain anymore. Hopefully. If it could, it probably would figure out their tactic soon enough, and go after Turrin instead of the bat trying to get its attention. But that was fine too, Brandon still had his daggers; he could render the body useless by cutting in the right places... and Turrin was more than capable of serving as a nice distraction. Brandon just hoped that Turrin realized he didn't have to sever a limb with each attack; he merely had to start to cut, and finish it later. Hit and run tactics, nothing new to the bat, but Turrin might not find it to his liking. Which was alright, as long as he did what he was told.

[Turrin]

Turrin just stared wide eyed at the abomination attacking Brandon. The endal could stare down a charging wolf, bear, or armored warrior with no problem, but this creature was unnatural, and even a arrow couldn't phase it. This dek was no creature bound to laws of Dira or Caiyha, so it could only be brought for either by magic or a dark deity. For a moment, the myrian stood in place frozen in fear as the outsider barked orders at him, but the endal wasn't really listening because he was to afraid to move. However, once Brandon asked if he heard him. The endal's golden eyes locked on the outsider and nodded slowly. Turrin might not have heard the other details of Brandon's plan, but he knew that the abomination needed to be destroyed for the safety of everyone in the market square. The endal watched Brandon as he almost danced around the much slower abomination.

As watched Brandon's fighting technique, Turrin noticed the outsider fought with a lot of quick strikes and counter strikes unarmed. The endal was curious why he relied on them against the enemy if they weren't effective. He would have switched to a more effective method long ago like the dagger sitting on his hip. In Taloba, Turrin seen myrian unarmed martial artists incapacitate their opponents with a just a few quick precision moves to the right area of the body. He figured Brandon must be biding his time and looking for a opening against the creature, but the endal knew the longer the outsider played with it. The more time the abomination had a chance to hurt Brandon or the people around him. Once Turrin heard Brandon say now, the endal sprung into action. The myrian decided to have the creature turn his focus on him a moment and let out a battle cry in myrian, “May Myri grant me courage to guide my blade to victory, and let Dira guide your soul to the afterlife creature!”

With a smile on the myrian face, Turrin charged the abomination with his talon sword out to his side. Brandon must have been trying to confuse or distract it because he spun around and used the momentum of his spinning body to add extra power into his backhanded punch to the creatures ribs. Even though, the move was in effective to the corpse. The punch had enough power to knock the creature backwards. Allowing the endal to strike without Brandon being in the way of his incoming sword. When Turrin was finally in range of the creature, the endal lifted his talon sword over his shoulder and swung the sword in a downward arch towards the left knee of the walking corpse. With the help of the momentum of his charge, the curved blade of the talon sword cleaved cleanly through the knee of the rotting corpse. Using the momentum of the swing, the endal spun completely around for his next attack at the right leg, but the corpse was already falling to the ground, so the endal stopped his second attack at the other leg. Deciding to get out of reach of the undead, Turrin jumped back and waited for Brandon to set the thing on fire.