Risks... [dead]

[flippedside]

Kaye had been watching with interest the end of Willow's fight. She was surprised the woman had been able to bend as far as she did without falling, but saw the trick as soon as Willow loosened. Clever, she thought briefly, waiting to see the end result. The stranger was dumped on the sword handle, and Kaye winced in sympathy. That had to hurt. She couldn't help a grin, though, as the man lay groaning on the ground.

"Very nice," she told Willow. "I'll have to remember that trick for future use."

She stepped up to stand near the man, but not quite within range, in case he suddenly decided to do something stupid: like try to kick or tackle her. She moved closer, though, in response to Willow's demand. "You want him carried, or hauled to his feet? He still seems to be breathing fine, so I don't think he hurt his lungs. Which means he can walk: even if it's painful." Kaye paused, waiting for Willow's response. Silently, she was thankful that Willow hadn't killed the man. The mysterious response by their other attacker made her want to question this man. He was the leader, and apparently had simply hired out the rest. Why?

Clearly, he hadn't run into his target group, but then who was he looking for? Not only that, but Kaye couldn't help wondering if this mysterious group being hunted would be someone of interest--or use--to Kaye. Well, only one way to find out...And this man held all the answers.

Kaye felt a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. They would find out...

[bhuvana]

Bhuvana shifted from leg to leg numerous times, watching the tussel take place. Her joints ached to be part of the fight, her ocelot half screaming for more blood, but she held down the urges. It had taken years of practice to hold down such urges, but now that her bloodless diet had been broken, it proved she'd have to learn the control all over again.

But still she didn't leap to fight, using all strength to ignore her wills. Kaye was standing, waiting patiently, so obviously Willow wished to do this on her own. Again Bhuvana shifted. Oh how she wanted blood...

She shook away the urges, spitting the copper taste from her mouth. Her will was stronger then that. It wouldn't give in. She growled quietly, at herself rather then anyone else. Her eyes scanned the area, even when she was already assured the man fighting Willow was the only remaining.

But why? Why did he want them? She looked to Kaye, hoping to fight answers, but saw none there. Instead Kaye moved forward as Willow barked some sort of order. Only Kaye's name had been spoken, so Bhuvana stayed where she was. Willow had the man down, and now Kaye aided her. Why not just kill him? Why allow him and the other man live? But they didn't release this man, unlike the other. She started to wonder if she had done a wrong when she slaughtered the man that had appeared beside Kaye while the leopard shifter fought the other stranger. No, Kaye had said a kind phrase. No one should be angry with me...She turned full attention to the three before her. Although her eyes jumped around every now and then, like a watchman.

[Willow]

Willow grinned at Kaye’s compliment, thought it was stiff with pain from her complaining back and the slash across her hip. It was deeper than she’d first thought, and was making a point of being noticed now that her adrenaline was fading.

She noticed another pain in her side, and found another cut there, quite a bit deeper than the other. Not recalling how she’d got it, she assumed that she must have got it as they both fell, after Alioth hitting her sword. He’d dropped his point-first towards her as she rolled away, and the curve of the mark supported the guess.

She shot him a vicious glare as she wiped one of her bloody hands on the leg of her clothes, holding this latest injury with the other, ignoring the light rivulets of blood that fell over her hips and stained the grass.

“On second thoughts, can I kill him instead? Or at least chop off an arm or two...” She mused, but moved to his side and carefully slid his arm around her neck and her arm around his waist, supporting his ribs, holding his wrist with her other hand and leaving her own wound to bleed freely.

“I’m not gonna carry him, but no hauling either – if his rib moves it could hit a lung or artery. Then we may as well bury him alive, for the amount of breaths he’ll be taking afterwards.” She grumbled, bracing her legs under her and slowly lifting his virtual dead-weight, ignoring his pained moans. “Get his other side, please? I’m not too happy with him being this slumped...” She requested, trying to pull him a little straighter.

She nodded to Suhel, wary eyes questioning.
“What’re we doing with him? I doubt he’ll get far with that leg,” She said, glancing over at him again. She wasn’t worried about him, per se, more what he would do if he reached civilization.
Supporting Alioth, she took a step forward and cursed as her wound stretched, twisting like a grimacing smile.

“Another thing to remind me; drop kick this swine off the nearest cliff once we’re done with him.” She added, completely serious, limping forward another step, aiming to prop Alioth up against the nearest tree so that she didn’t have to support him constantly.

"Where are the others, by the way?" She asked, knowing Kaye would understand who she meant; Nightfall, Kaye's mercenary band.

[flippedside]

Kaye moved swiftly around to support the man's other side, giving him a disgusted glare in the process. She knew, of course, that he couldn't walk with cracked ribs: heck, he was probably in serious pain just trying to breathe. Still, it was a pain having to haul him around. Especially since he was the one to have attacked them. No matter: they would get to the bottom of this. And if hauling him around was the way to do so, then...

Answering Willow, Kaye replied quietly, "I'm leaving him around for a bit, to see if he cleverly comes up with more information." She stared briefly at Suhel, who was wrapping his leg with his shirt, amidst considerably grimacing and groaning. Kaye thought he would make an excellent actor. Certainly he wasn't a good fighter, so maybe he ought to take up acting instead...She smiled slightly at the thought before bringing herself back to what she was doing.

Carefully, Kaye laid the man against a tree. Immediately, she strode over to her pack and pulled out a length of twine, using it to swiftly bind the man's hands. She kept them in front of him, though, so as not to further damage his ribs. He was surprisingly cooperative.

Kaye paused to glance around, and saw Bhuvana watching the area warily. Looking hard at her, she said, "Watch. Guard." Kaye then acted out what she meant, scanning the area and prowling a bit in a protective manner. She repeated the words, and then turned back to Willow and the stranger, hoping Bhuvana picked up on her intent. She'd prefer it if no more strangers appeared to attack them.

"Nightfall?" Kaye asked, returning her focus to Willow. "They're hanging out in Tannoch, getting drunk. Or that's what they were doing last I saw them. Wasting the money we got on our last 'outing.'" She grinned. "I had some private business to attend to, so I left them for the time being. I'll either meet back up with in Tannoch or on the Feather River sometime later." She shrugged. "They were happy for the break. We've been working hard for some months now, and everyone wanted it." Silently, she added, I could've used a break, too, but oh well. She'd already made her own decisions.

Returning her attention to their prisoner, she at last spoke directly to him. "So, buddy, what's your name? Or do we have to force it out of you?"

He glared up at them, but answered promptly. "It's Alioth and who the hell are you?"

"Well I could ask the same of you. We were just hanging out chatting, and suddenly some men attack us out of nowhere..."

"You were not just 'hanging out' when I arrived. You were hiding. We were looking for someone...Someone else, apparently."

"Yes, I got that information from your hireling, over there." She jerked her hand in Suhel's direction. "Calls himself Suhel, said you hired him to hunt out some people. Wasn't too useful after that." She tilted her head consideringly. "I've left him alive for the moment, but you won't get the same consideration if you don't talk."

Alioth gazed at her coolly. "So what do you want to know?" He was neither agreeing nor disagreeing with talking, but Kaye noted that he had been fairly open so far. A good sign for them. Pain could be a good motivator to making people nice and chatty.


OOC: A little short, but I'm letting someone else have some fun with coming up with why they were attacked and who Alioth's looking for.

[Willow]

[OOC: Ugh, sorry this took so long to put up, my muse has been rather deflated for a while. Here it is.

Willow muttered a quiet ‘thanks’ as Kaye came round to help support Alioth, allowing her to guard his injury better. He still sounded in a lot of pain, but that was to be expected. Remembering the sound of his ribs cracking had Willow biting back a grimace. She’d never dealt with broken bones as well as everything else, despite them being relatively minor injuries compared to some of the wounds she could – and did – invent and inflict.
She nodded distractedly at Kaye as she answered her question, concentrating more on lowering the man down without widening her own wound further, swearing quietly under her breath as she failed.
Once he was down, she resisted the urge to punch him in the face and instead flopped down against another face of the tree and winced, finally examining her injuries while Kaye tied him up.
The gash in her side was the worst, the area around it drenched in blood. It didn’t look serious, however. Just very painful.
Sighing, Willow slowly moved to stand on all fours then shifted, limping on three legs over to her bag and grabbing the strap in her teeth, flipping it over her head and dragging it back to the tree where she shifted again and started mopping up the excess blood, shooting glares at Alioth as she did, listening quietly to Kaye saying what Nightfall were up to then to what their more useful prisoner had to say.
When she left the questioning open for input, Willow chipped in without looking up from her injury.
“Tell us what you know about the ones you are, or were, tracking, who sent you after them if anyone did; and regardless if you were sent or are working for yourself, why you’re after them. And why you thought we were them.”
From her peripheral vision she watched as Alioth grimaced at her volley of questions, then took a shallow breath to answer, wincing at his ribs and speaking in a slow, staggered voice.
“We were sent out by someone in the centre of Inaja - I don’t know who, he contacted me and refused to give any details...which makes me think he’s either in something big and illegal, or he’s doing some dirty work for the higher ups - to hunt down these three sisters. Sounds as if they were on the run and this guy didn’t want them to be. I was paid half up front to not ask questions, so there’s not much I can tell you on that front.” He shrugged minutely, pausing to rest. Willow waited patiently, holding wads of rough wool over the wounds and gulping down a few poppy seeds. They weren’t the best thing for pain, but they might take the edge off until she could make something more suitable.
She glanced over at Alioth when she heard his breathing steady, before asking a single word.
“Mercenary?” She nodded to him, to get a nod in return. “Continue,” She allowed, bowing her head this time merely to think and listen.
“That probably explains why I’m tracking those girls. Money. It’s just another job to me. As for why I thought you were them, well...” He broke off to grin ruefully, a faster breath huffing out softly instead of a laugh. “Three girls, trying to hide when they realised there was someone nearby, hastily trying to disguise the fact they were there,” He dipped his head towards the remains of the fire to show what he meant. “And that we only had vague descriptions to go off left us guessing. You seemed to fit, although I can see now you’re not what we’re looking for.” He paused again, nodding at his ribs to emphasise his past statement before concentrating on just breathing again. Willow waited once more, flicking a look at Kaye, wondering what she thought of all this. Her attention returned to Alioth, and a moment later he continued speaking.
“One question I was permitted to ask was if they would put up a decent fight when caught. My employer said that none of them had ever held a sword, let alone learnt how to use one, although they were smart enough to buy some to make it look as if they did.” Sighing, Alioth stopped for a moment, then concluded; “I believe that’s answered all your questions thus far?” He asked, sarcasm pricking his words.
Willow nodded vaguely, as if only half listening.
“Anything to add, Kaye?” She asked, then lay aside the wool and shifted into a wolf to lick the wounds clean, her speaking done for now.

[flippedside]

"Oh nothing, so far," Kaye said lightly. She had nothing personal against the stranger: picking up odd jobs that paid while inflicting violence was what she made her money off of, just as he did. However, she wasn't always so friendly when those odd jobs affected her...Or rather, involved an attack on her person and those with her.

She turned and stalked back to find that the man she had left had fainted away. Disgusting lump, she thought darkly, before returning to Alioth. "In the future," she told him sarcastically, "you might think about hiring better thugs." She paused, and then seemed to think better of this. "Then again, they were nice and easy to defeat, so I can't really complain, can I?" She tilted her head, her gaze blank and inward as she considered her prisoner.

"So if I ask why your employer wanted these girls, you can't tell me, right?"

Alioth shook his head.

Kaye sighed. "Too bad. I don't suppose he'd pay me if I brought them back, would he?" The words were musing, thoughtful. She was playing cat and mouse with her prisoner, but he didn't seem to realize it yet. Then again, most didn't always catch on to the slight games she played with them. She wished she had Evan to track for her; give him two hours and he'd probably find the girls for her. A thought struck her: maybe Bhuvana had the skill to track swiftly and accurately. Of course, the question remained whether the girl would be willing to do so...Or even understand what she was asking. Kaye could track well herself, but she wasn't an expert. She was better at street fighting, having spent most of her life in the city.

Alioth stared at her, annoyed. Kaye brought her gaze back to him and grinned cheekily. May the best man win, she thought, amused by the idea of stealing this man's prey from his hands. Honestly, she was curious now about these girls. Whether she would turn them in or not remained to be seen: she did have some morals. Well, that and she wasn't sure if she'd get paid a fair deal for bringing them back.

"Too bad your ribs are cracked: I could use you as a guide." Kaye was amused by the thought, though in truth she wouldn't have done so, since the man remained her enemy.

She turned back to Willow. She could see the woman carefully licking her wound clean in her wolf shape. There was nothing Kaye could do to help her: Willow was already using the same skills and herbs that Kaye had on hand. So instead she asked, "What do you think? Care to find some mysterious women roaming these woods? I'm becoming quite curious about them, myself."

Alioth snorted, but Kaye ignored him. "We can keep our camp here for a bit, I think. Only question is, what to do with our two captives? I suppose we'll have to burn the two dead men." She made a face, hating the stench of burnt flesh, but there was no way she was going to the effort of digging trenches in the ground.

"Let me go back to town," Alioth said quickly. "Those men have families that would be happy to bury their bodies for you."

Kaye raised an eyebrow, her expression betraying her disgust at that idea. "Right, and have you bring the whole town down on us? I think not."

"No, really, I'll just bring the families--"

"Quiet!" Kaye snapped. "I'm not stupid." She gave a short glare and then returned her attention to Willow and Bhuvana, who lurked in the shadows.