Room for One More? (Mercs)

[Darastrix]

Rysa leaned slightly on her staff as she looked up at the building that housed the local mercenary guild. She'd heard enough of the leader's reputation to be impressed, though the individual who'd directed her to the guildhall had warned her that Lord Melissan-Ronoh's personality left a great deal to be desired.

Well, you don't become a mercenary by being nice, she'd thought, and thanked the man. True, some nice people became sell-swords, but that had jack-all to do with their job.

Speaking of jobs, she wasn't going to get one by admiring the scenery, so Rysa hefted her quarterstaff and entered the building. "Who do I see about joining up?" she called, looking around with interest.

[Northen Light36]

"See the boss," one of the mercs, a guy currently sorting and cleaning weapons. "He's out the back trainning." He gestured to another door. "You can go though there. Don't interrupt him though. He hates that."

Amaro is working in the open air courtyard out back, with a weighted wooden blade rather then pot-iron or live steel. The reason for the wooden blade is easily spotted as well. Aria is happily watching her father from a safe distance and trying to minic him with a stick she'd picked up.

[Darastrix]

"Thanks," Rysa told the man, and headed through the indicated door. Once in the courtyard, she leaned against a wall, propping her staff up beside her, and watched her potential new boss work.

Didn't think they started training them that young here, she thought to herself, grinning at her own private jest as she spotted Aria. She was a cute cub..er, child.

[Northen Light36]

Amaro notices Rysa the moment she exits the building of course. He's always damn sure to be aware of everything around him when training. You don't live this long as a merc by being sloppy and careless. Seeing that she put her weapon aside, Amaro dismisses her as not a threat and continues his practice drills.

Seeing Amaro with a sword in hand, it's easy to see that he's had a lifetime of training, and experience, in the art of weaponry. The wooden sword seems like nothing more then an extention of his arm as he moves into increasingly more complicated drills with confidence and ease. Since it's a warm day, Amaro's shirt is draped over a fence post, meaning Amaro's well developed muscles are on display. As are the large collection of scars he's collected over the years. Some look like the usual scars you'd expect to see on an experieced fighter, but some of the scars on his back look suspisiously like he was on the wrong end of a whip at some point in his history.

Aria swiftly gives up mimicking her father and wanders over to Rysa with a happy smile. "Hello!" she greets the woman. "That's my daddy!" she tells her, pointing to Amaro with her stick. "Who are you?"

[Darastrix]

Rysa watched Amaro work with an appreciative eye. It was clear the man knew what he was doing, and he'd definitely taken a hard road to get the that point. When Aria walked over, she turned her attention to the little girl.

"Name's Rysa," she answered with a grin, sliding down the wall into a squat so she could be on Aria's level. "I'm here to see if I can join up with your dad's guild."

[Northen Light36]

Aria looks up at Rysa thoughtfully, sticking a dirty thumb into her mouth. "Daddy yells," she warns seriously.

Amaro finishes up his drills and then carefully puts away the training sword before he joins Rysa and Aria. "If you're looking for a show, girl, try my wife's guild," he remarks. "Or did some joker give you the idea that you're good enough to be a merc?" He heard why she was here, but as far as he's concerned it does no good if he coddles the newbies at the start. Either they'll handle it or they'll leave without wasting his time.

[Darastrix]

"Yep, almost twenty years' worth of jokers," Rysa answered easily as she stood back up. She didn't appear to be bothered by Amaro's manner. "My folks did escort work for people wantin' to go from Humontis into the Beastlands. Usually somewhere in Poldora or through Beleg to Autus. Did the same myself with them and my brothers for years. After they died, I took to roamin' around and hirin' out to folks. Still a lotta escort work goin' through dangerous areas - and not-so dangerous ones - but I've done a fair bit of guard work on and off the road. Hadn't had anyone die yet, and it's not from lack of someone else tryin.'"

[Northen Light36]

"Twenty years, is it?" Amaro replies, looking the woman over consideringly. "Well, girl, if you've been on the job for twenty years, what makes you decide to come here for work?" He's still sounding gruff, but his tone isn't quite as dismissive as it had been.

[Darastrix]

"I still like to travel, don't get me wrong," Rysa replied, "but I've been thinkin' it'd be nice to have a place to go back to after the job is done. The way I've been goin', I'm pretty much workin' all the time. Take a job, do the job, get paid, spend a few day's rest where I am, head off to the nearest place with people to spend some coin and drum up a new job, since when you're a migrant sell-sword, you can't exactly wait around for somethin' to fall in your lap. Even after you build up your reputation, most folks still won't know where you are at any given time."

She leaned back again, propping up against the wall behind her. "And before you ask, I'm here instead of just findin' a house somewhere because I'm not interested in settlin' into one." Maybe when she found a mate or retired. Maybe.

[Northen Light36]

Amaro chuckles softly, remembering his own life on the road. He looks the woman over again, consideringly. "What weapons do you use?" he asks. "Just the quarterstaff or something else as well?"

Aria tugs at Amaro's shirt and asks, "Up daddy?"

"Not now, Aria," Amaro replies, glancing at her. Aria sighs.

[Darastrix]

"I'm not too bad with a small blade," Rysa told him, "but I like a staff or polearm the best."

[Northen Light36]

"Well you better learn to be good with a blade if you want to join my guild," Amaro replies firmly. "I don't allow my mercs to go out only using one weapon well. What happens if you lose that weapon in a fight? If you can't use anything else, you might as well lay down and die. You want to join here, then you better prepare yourself to learn at least two weapons well and be at least familar with the use of any other common weapon that you won't kill yourself with it."

[Darastrix]

If you're going to lay down and die just because you lost your weapon, you deserve to die, Rysa thought. Even if you didn't have another weapon to fall back on, you could always do something.

"That'd be fair," she replied, "but you might want to rethink how you say that, unless you encourage your people to give up and bare their throats to an opponent's teeth just because things get hard. I'm not gonna 'lay down and die' if my staff gets kicked off a cliff and the other person's got a sword and a locked gauntlet."

[Northen Light36]

"If they're stupid enough to let one sentance convince them to give up and die in a bad situation, then they're Taed's problem, not mine," Amaro replies coldly. "Or I kick them to Ilyamen and let Sashi deal with them." He looks her over consideringly. "Quarterstaff and knives, hmm? Normally I'd toss you over to my sister, see how you handle her. But since she's away, we'll skip that test."

Taking down a staff from the spare weapons rack, Amaro nods towards the training ring. "Let's see how well I can hold up against you, girl."

Aria claps happily, her eyes bright with excitement. "Daddy win!" the little girl orders.

[Darastrix]

And polearm, she thought, but it wasn't as though she could keep one of those on her belt.

Rysa discarded her weathered leather vest, leaving her in a tunic that might have been white at some point in its lifetime, and retrieved her own staff before stepping into the ring.

"Ready when you are," she said, getting into position.