My own flesh and blood|Talen'sul

[aivea]

After the oddly quiet walk from Reave, Shula and Bremen arrive in the mountains of Talen'sul. The scout stops suddenly and looks up, thinking he'd heard something. He'd only looked in time to see someone walk down from a nearby ledge and disappear from sight.

"Who was that?" he asks himself, one hand moving toward his sword.

After a few moments, a cloaked figure enters view and stands within ten feet of the pair. The new arrival pushes back his hood to reveal his appearance: intense eyes, features similar to Shula's and an x-shaped scare through the Fire sign on his cheek.

"Good to see you again, brother. I'm so glad I get to be the one to put you out of your misery," the man says with a grin spreading over his face as he unsheathed his scimitar.

"What do you mean 'my misery', Pyrrus?" asks Shula, looking truly confused.

"The misery and knowledge of being a failure that having a single sign causes."

Before Shula can respond, Pyrrus attacks quickly and catches his brother off guard. The scout does his best to fight defensively using his sword but he is losing from the start and unwilling to harm his own flesh and blood even if to save his own life. Soon both are wounded and bleeding, though Pyrrus is wounded less than his brother. Knocked to the ground and disarmed after a few moments of fighting, Shula doubts he has the chance to use an elemental attack before he is killed.

"Why... why are you doing this?"

"You know, I really should punish you for not letting me save you."

Pyrrus grins down at his brother and carefully slashes Shula's sword arm in a way that would render that arm useless to him for the rest of his life. For the scout, that is a fate worse than death because it means he will no longer be able to work. Losing interest in his brother, Pyrrus turns to Bremen.

"On one hand, I should thank you for bringing my little brother to me. But on the other, stabbing you would be more fun," he says to the wanderer before lunging at Bremen to attack.

[bartimaeus]

Bremen reacts instinctively touching his sign, knowing that his weapons were too far away to reach in time. Bremen summons a wall of fire in front of him and when Pyrrus hits it flings it forward throwing the crazed man backwards, away from Bremen.

Bremen uses the small time gained to rip out his swords from their sheaths on his back. Using his time effectively, Bremen touches his sign and heats the metal on his sword causing the metal to turn a flaming orange. Careful not to heat the blades too much, or they'd be useless, the cold steel would slice through like butter. Bremen stands at the ready preparing himself for the next attack.

[aivea]

Pyrrus laughs happily and declares, "It's more fun this way, isn't it? I think it's more fun to kill someone who fights back than someone who lays down and waits for death."

He maneuvers around the wall of flame, careful not to touch it before swiping at Bremen repeatedly with his weapon as fast as possible.

Shula closes his eyes and passes out, giving into pain, blood loss and shock.

[bartimaeus]

Bremen has no time to think. He madly defends himself as sparks fly between his red hot swords and Pyrrus's hysterical slashes. Bremen feels one arm getting tired and knowing this would be his downfall throws one sword away while defending himself with all the strength he can muster.

Now that he has a free hand, Bremen touches his sign and with a malicious grin summons a searing white hot flame and instantly sends it flaring straight at Pyrrus's eyes.

[aivea]

Pyrrus brings up his scimitar to try to use it to defend his eyes but reacts slightly too slowly. Now blinded, he pats out the flames with his free hand and staggers. The wounds from the previous battle and loss of blood are affecting his energy level and reaction time. Though weakened and unable to see, Pyrrus can still guess what direction Bremen is in because of the sound made by the wanderer's motions. Covering what was left of his eyes, he charges at Bremen to try to run the wanderer through.

(Go ahead and have Bremen kill Pyrrus if you want.)

[bartimaeus]

Touching his sign Bremen summons another wall of fire and uses it to throw Pyrrus back again. Using the noise the roaring fire makes throwing the man back, Bremen moves around his wall and behind Pyrrus. Swinging his sword around in a horizontal arc, Bremen decapitates Shula's brother as he attempts to locate Bremen.

Blood spatters over Bremen as the head rolls away, mutilated eyes staring at nothing. Bremen licks the blood off his lips and spits it on the dead body. Rage surges through Bremen as he stares at the body.

"Get up! You coward, death is too easy for you." Bremen screams hysterically. "Death. Is. Too. Easy. For. You." Bremen screams louder as he stabs the body with each word. His rage suddenly spent Bremen remembers his friend and frantically searches for him. Their fight had moved them a bit, but not too far and Bremen spots Shula unconscious a small way from where he was standing.

Bremen runs over to Shula and cradles his head in his arms. Bremen frees one hand, tears clouding his vision as he checks for a pulse. A small moment of panic fills him when he can't feel anything at first, but a moment before Bremen removes his fingers, a small thud issues forth weakly. Knowing his friend is in grave danger; Bremen gently picks up the scout and begins to run in a random direction.

Bremen screams for help as he runs, praying to who ever was listening that there would be someone within ear shot. He had no idea where he was or where the closest town was. The last one he remembered was a few days walk back the way he and Shula had come. Bremen doesn't stop running or screaming for help as he frantically searches for someone, anyone who could help.

[adris]

After the festival Vortai usually left to Talen'sul to extend his horizons, and so he isn't so well recognized in one area. Also, since the winds are easier on prisoners then the storms of his homeland he enjoys taking his chances on the peaks of Talen'sul rather then the towns of Maelstrom. He was able to witness the end of the fight and for too long stood silent as he witnessed the horrible decapitation. It was only after that he decided that he had to lead them somewhere but he could only panic when he wondered where. Finally he just decided to run up to them.

"Hey! Can I help you any? I can show you the way to Zephyr Heights if you wish. I'm not a healer but I do know where the towns are around here."

He kinda wished at the moment that he knew a doctor around here. This isn't good and the best he could do is maybe help them with the chance of finding somebody. For once he wanted to help someone else rather then rob the people blind.

[bartimaeus]

Bremen struggles to hold back tears while grasping at the small ray of hope this man could give. Shula was still losing blood fast, and Bremen had nothing in his pouches of herbs and plants that could help stem the flow. Bremen can barely see Shula's chest rising and falling as the scout struggles to breathe.

"Please, I need a healer" Bremen pleads "He's dieing, I need help." Bremen looks at the man directly in the eyes. "Please, if you know where there's a healer, take me there? I can pay you! Please I don't have much time" Bremen can't hold back the tears which are now freely flowing down his face. In his panic he doesn't notice.

[adris]

Vortai immediately runs a few step ahead of the man and waves in the direction of Zephyr. This is the best bet if they are going to find someone to heal the injured man. He thinks if there is anything they could do to help.

"The village is at the mountain's foot, so getting there won't be hard. Try to wrap the wounds on his extremities with cloths, I don't know how fast we will find a healer in town."

He tries not to outrun the man while leading the way to town, he only prays he can help the man. Time was running out and he could not take seeing another death today. Plus, that reward he just heard of was just as tasty as being a hero.

[bartimaeus]

Bremen follows the man. Fearing for Shula's life has caused Bremen to lose all track of time. It feels like he has been running for hours, when it could only have been minutes. There wasn't time to bandage up the wounds. It wouldn't help, not when it was a steady slow oozing, which the bandages would just soak up the blood and then leak anyway. Bremen hoped that they would be at this town soon, or Shula wasn't going to make it.

[adris]

(OOC: well, we can post in Zephyr whenever you are ready... I can't think of much more then some 'they are getting closer' posts)

Vortai made it to the town's limits and waved to the man behind him to hurry. He needed to get this man inside if not even to a healer.

"Right in here, want me to help you find someone? I am happy to help, just don't know how much I can be."

[bartimaeus]

(New thread in Zephyr)