Medieval, Kingdoms of Ardania and Derangia - Repowered

Valery was very uncomfortable, and continued, constantly, to adjust her position, "Oi, I'll never make it there like this..." she wasn't able to do much about it, though, but her horse had followed the lead of the others and sped up. She gave out a yelp and slipped back, but she caught herself, "This is going to be a long trip..."

-------

Candy jumped, "Ah! Um... Ahahaha! I was joking! Just a little joke~" Candy said, smiling brightly as she laughed in a loud and awkward fashion. Had her journey ended before it even began? She hoped not.

"Me? Do that on purpose? Never, my lady.' Alice smiled pleasantly at the young elf. No, she hadn't done it on purpose, but she couldn't say she wasn't enjoying seeing the elf squirm, just a bit. They were still within the borders of Ardania, so there was plenty of time left for.. messing with her, a bit.

Still, she didn't want the young elf to have to lay there like that for the whole time. Reaching over, she gently grabbed a hold of the elf's arm. "I've got you. Just sit up and hold onto the horn of the saddle. That should keep you steady."

Hearing the dwarf complain, she looked back. "Valery? Are you doing alright back there? If it's uncomfortable to sit that way, you can try riding side-saddle."

Letting go of Lyra when she either got settled or refused to cooperate, Alice turned back to face forward as the road continued on. At this faster pace, they were moving further away from the city and thus there were less people on the road. There were side dirt roads leading to villages scattered along the path, and the sea could be seen in the distance on one side, with towns and farms scattered about a small distance from the main road.

So far, this trip wasn't entirely unpleasant. She'd enjoy this while it lasted.

Lyra only continued to glare in answer to the maid. However, she realized that that staying like this wouldn't be quite comfortable for a trip that would take more than a day. So when Alice tried to help her up, she complied, albeit begrudgingly. "Thanks..." She mumbled under her breathe, not worrying too much if the maid heard her or not.

Now that she was sitting up straight, she finally started to relax. Though not by much, she was still a bit tense from riding atop something so much bigger than her. She took her time to take in the sights for a moment. This was her second time going along this path. The first was when she left her home behind her. She never thought she'd be returning to it. Especially, not under these circumstances.

"Ahem, about 2 miles from here we'll reach the forest," She spoke up. She should tell them this now or pay for it later, "You should keep your guard up once we near it. Bandits hide out there, we'd be seen as easy pickings for them. And though I doubt we'd have to worry much about them, there are wolves in the forest as well."

-----

"Brother, what do you plan on doing?" Milano asked, as she helped her brother put the saddle on his horse. They were on the outskirts of the castle, preparing for the departure of her dear brother. Milano had learned of Alice and that elf leaving to negotiate with their Queen. It spelled trouble for them, she just knew it.

Lance didn't glance up as he strapped the final belt on the saddle, "We're going to follow them."

"... we're?"

He nodded, still not looking her in the eye, "The only reason my fiance and her adviser let me leave was under the condition that I brought you back. That bastard, Gawain, already compromised the mission and hurt you far more than our supposed enemy. It's time I took you home."

"I..." Milano opened her mouth, trying to think of some excuse. Some way to convince him to let her stay. Nothing came to mind, "I understand, Brother..."

Sighing, Lance placed a hand on his sister's shoulder, "I won't let him hurt you again. He'll have to kill me first," Giving her one final reassuring gentle squeeze, he released her, "You should go on ahead, you're far faster than any horse, you'll be able to follow them in the shadows much easier than me."

"Yes, brother," She turned to leave, but paused for just a second, "Be careful." And then she was gone in a flash.

Lance hopped on his horse, clenching the reigns tightly in his hands. "Why are you worrying about me, I'm not the one who..." No one would notice the tear drop that fell on his hand as he sent his horse out on full trot.

-----

Claude gave the princess a skeptical look. He didn't buy it one bit. He was accustomed to the ways of sneaking out. Many a young girl had the pleasure of the young boy's time. And sometimes, many a young male.

"Is that so, princess?" He hid the sly grin as he bowed to the princess, "Then you would not mind giving me the pleasure of escorting to your tutor, would you?"

Valery scoffed, "Bandits? Hah! Even on top of this ridiculous animal they'd be no match for me and my axe!" Valery beat her chest once in assurance of her claims.

"Also, no bandits mess with a dwarf! They know how tough we are, so they don't even bother!" This statement was entirely based on the fact she had gone without trouble from her homeland to Ardania's capital, and she assumed it was just how intimidating dwarves were.

----

"Aha? Uh, no no! That's fine!" Candy waved her hand at Claude, sweatdropping and showing her lack of skills at lying to their fullest, "I mean, I can do it myself, after all,"

If her tone and expression weren't odd enough on their own, there was also the fact she'd never turned down an escort before unless there was a clear reason.

Lily gave Valery and odd look when the girl mentioned bandits. She seriously doubted that they would get to their destination without encountering bandits. The main road through Derrangia was plagued with them. Not to mention that you just couldn't have a long journey without encountering them at some point.

Of course, she wasn't really worried about her own safety; as she was certain that there weren't enough highwaymen in land to take down both her and Alice. However, she was a bit worried about her travelling companions; as she doubted they would be that useful in a fight.

However; she decided that this line of thought would only cause her to be more paranoid than she ought to be; so she turned her attention to her travelling companions. It occured to her that she hadn't teased the dwarf yet, so she focussed on her.

"So, dwarf girl, are you one of those rare, clean-shaven dwarves?" she asked. "Or did your beard by chance just up and run away?"

"You're very welcome." Alice had, in fact, heard her. If only because she had been listening for some word of thanks, reluctant or not. It was just proper manners, after all. Placing the reins to Lyra's horse around her saddle's horn, she rolled her shoulder, her arm a little tense from having it extend out behind her as she pulled Lyra's horse along. She seemed relaxed enough to not go rolling off her horse at this point, so she thought it was fine to do this.

Listening to the others discuss bandits and wolves, Alice was honestly more afraid of the wolves than of the people. She knew she could fight and beat a normal person in combat. Wild animals, on the other hand, were a whole different story. Wolves were fast and liked to latch on to thing with their large, point teeth. Alice inwardly shuddered at the thought.

Well, at least Lily was here. She could probably hit a wolf square between the eyes before it even reached them. Looking up, the elf was right. She could see the Ardanian checkpoint and the forest coming up ahead.

Alice slowed down a little, not wanting to make the soldiers uneasy as they approached. Still, they'd probably recognize her and Lily from the castle, as many of them she saw on a regular basis, with them switching out with other soldiers from the castle barracks. Riding ahead a bit, and dragging Lyra along with her, she went to speak with the captain of the encampment. It was newly added, which was unsurprising since the checkpoint consisted of crude sharpened log stockade fences and soldiers milling about tents they had put up.

"We're on a mission from the queen, and will need to head through the forest." She rifled in her pocket and pulled out a note of proof from the queen.

"Very good, go on ahead." The guard nodded and waved them through.

"Come on, quickly." Alice called back to Lily and Valery as she pulled Lyra along past the checkpoint and into the forest. Alice faced forward as they entered. It was much darker in here than it was outside, and it made her nervous, gripping her horse's reins tightly and clenching her teeth.

Claude raised an eyebrow at the princess. It was odd for her to refuse an escort with such a vague excuse as that. It only confirmed what he already knew. That the princess was lying through her teeth, "But I insist Princess, unless you have other plans. Plans that may or may not involve following a certain blonde maid."

---

Lyra decided to not comment on the dwarf's boasting. She had made a vow to play nice with the dwarf and she was going to keep it. Though, that didn't mean she wouldn't snicker lightly at the Jester's comment. Really, that was a terrible joke. She should be ashamed to find it so funny, yet she did.

Of course, she quieted down once they approached the soldiers. Even she knew that a mission like this needed her to at least act professional. Though, something was bothering her. She decided to voice her concern once they were past the checkpoint, "I've been wondering, why do they not question a maid being sent on such an important mission? Is it common practice for you humans to send servants on something like this?"

Valery practically growled at the Jester, "Oi! I'm a girl, obviously I wouldn't have a beard!" Her face turned red. What was up with that comment? Did she look like she should have a beard? Though it was true that Dwarves held a lot of belief in strong beards meaning strong men, but she wasn't a man!

She looked forward and saw that they were about to enter the forest now. It was rather dark in here, but she was used to that aspect of life in general. She had, after all, grown up in a cave. But she wasn't used to trees, and it was a very dark forest here. She'd dealt with a forest on her way into Ardania, but she had just quickly gone through it without looking around. She wondered if the elf and maid would let things go like that here.

At Lyra's question, she couldn't help but listen curiously herself. She wasn't sure what Servants did in general, now she thought about it, since she'd never had one or been one.

-------------

"Err... well..." Candy was good with speech when she knew what she was going to say ahead of time, but it seems a lie is harder to tell when caught off guard. As she struggled with it and knew she'd taken too long for anything to be believable, she got angry with herself and then angry at Claude.

"Why are you asking so many questions, anyway?!" She shouted loudly and then covered her mouth. Woops, let my temper out again... And she'd gone all day without shouting, too. How unladylike. The thought of how unladylike it was also kind of made her angry, but she looked at Claude to see what he said.

Alice just grinned and shook her head at Lily and Valery's banter. She was used to Lily's manner of joking, but she always found it funny anyway. Looking over at Lyra as she spoke, she furrowed her brow, trying to figure out how best to answer that question.

"Well.. explaining all the reasons why would take a little while, so I'll give the short version. No, it's not a common practice, but I'm not exactly a regular maid." Alice shrugged and continued. "I'm, more or less, the princess's personal assistant and bodyguard. She and the queen trust me to do things like this, and I always offer."

She could also bust through walls and throw a grown man from one end of the castle to the other.. but she didn't really feel like going into detail about that. People tended to have mixed reactions to her abnormal strength.

Bringing up her somewhat-occupation as a bodyguard made her think back on the princess. Hopefully she was doing okay. It hadn't been that long since she'd seen her.. but still.

"Ah, so the rumors I heard about female dwarves having beards were false?" said Lily.

Lily had never actually believed any of those rumors about dwarves, especially since she'd heard them from a drunk who'd also claimed that dwarven women breathed fire, ate rocks, and had explosive farts. However, she could tell she was getting on the Valery's nerves, so she decided it couldn't hurt to ask her about a few more of these silly things she'd heard.

"So...have yo ever breathed fire or eaten rocks?" she asked.

"A bodyguard? You humans have such odd customs," Surprisingly enough, Lyra didn't mean it as an insult. She was actually confused as to why a civil servant would double as a body guard. Nor did she understand why anyone would need a body guard either unless they were off on an important mission. She was quite capable of taking care of herself and foul play was a foreign concept to elves. Their home was well hidden and constantly moving, and the residents themselves would never consider killing their Keeper. They held far too much respect for their abilities to do that.

Lyra's attention was taken off the maid for the moment at the mention of the common rumors one would hear about dwarven women, "Oh, are we talking about the stone eater here? I can tell you all the tales my people have spoken about their kind."

----

Claude was unaffected by her outburst. It was something he'd come to expect from some women. He had come acquainted with many types after all. His next words came out smooth and easily, he knew exactly what to say to ease her anger "I only ask out of concern for my lovely princess."

"Who knows what dangers lurk for a beautiful young woman traveling alone," Then he smiled, his next words probably taking the princess by surprise, "Which is why I insist on coming along. After all, cherie, you won't be able to get past the guards at the checkpoint. I can show you a shortcut."

Valery was outraged at Lily, and was about to demand what kind of company Lily keeps to be hearing such horrible rumors, and then the elf spoke. Ohhhhh boy that Elf.

"HEY!" Valery shouted and pointed at Lily, "DON'T LISTEN TO STUPID RUMORS FROM IDIOTS WHO DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT! ESPECIALLY IF THEY'RE AN ELF!" She then pointed at Lyra, "AND YOU! YOU SHOULD TALK YOU MUD EATER!" her screaming was so loud it was practically echoing in the forest. She then began cursing angrily, but much more quietly, to herself in Dwarven.

------

Candy's anger did in fact subside momentarily at his words, and then was replaced by a great deal of surprise, "Eh? You want to come with me?" She then grabbed her mouth. Ack! I let it slip... but he knew the truth anyway... She thought to herself.

"W-well, I guess I could use the company... and a shortcut would be very helpful, since I hadn't exactly figured that part out yet myself..." She wouldn't admit that she didn't know what she was doing, not even to herself. Even at this point, she figured that Claude coming along would just be a minor miscalculation and that everything would be fine, "What could go wrong, right? Ok, you can come," she smiled, but only a little. She thought Claude was a cute kid, having heard how he talks like that.

"Odd? Well, maybe. Humans may be more willing to hurt each other than elves ar-" Alice paused and flinched at Valery's sudden outburst, turning around to look at her with an irritated look on her face.

"I understand that Lily is irritating you, but there's no need to yell that loudly. You're going to draw unwanted and unneeded attention to us. I don't appreciate it." If that dwarf caused all the bandits in this stupid forest to attack them, it would really hinder their progress. Stopping to fight them would waste time and potentially get them injured before they even made it to Derengia. "Lily, stop bothering her. This is no longer the time or the place for jokes."

They were now further within the confines of the forest and way out of her comfort zone. Alice grit her teeth and rolled one of her shoulders, the tenseness in it causing the muscles to spasm uncomfortably.

Lily felt just a bit of guilt at Valery's outburst. While she had intended to upset the dwarf a bit; she hadn't intended to make her this angry. She made a mental note that the dwarf was a TAD sensitive; and decided that the elf would likely make a much better teasing target.

She turned to Alice.

"Ah, but I haven't even said anything about those rumors about elves..." she started to say, before she noticed her friends shoulder spasms.

"Uh, you look just a bit nervous,"

"Mud-eater?" Now that was a first. Lyra had never heard elves being associated with mud. Leaves sure, bark definitely. But mud? They weren't swamp monsters. Lyra was gonna make a retort when she heard Lily's remark, "Wait, what rumors about elves? Hey, don't ignore me. What ru-"

She stopped suddenly, a rustle catching her ear. She tried to signal Alice to stop, hoping she had heard the rustle too. There was no telling what that dwarf's yelling had attracted.

-----

"Then it's settled," Claude said, grinning triumphantly, "I'll go get a horse, meet me by the east gate."

With that, he ran off back to the stables. The stableman owed him a couple of favors so he was sure he'd be able to get a horse off him. All he had to do was weave a little lie about wanting to take a pretty girl on a horse ride.

Valery's face remained red as the anger and embarrassment she felt stayed strong. She looked around at the forest, not having heard anything at all but noticing that Lyra was looking around. She couldn't help herself, she was curious, "What's there?" She asked, trying to find it.

---

Candy sighed in resignation as Claude left her alone. Well, having someone coming along with her will also give her some company. She wasn't used to being alone, really. Claude would make a fun person to talk to.

She quickly grabbed her bag and went to where she had left her personal horse, riding it sidesaddle (As is appropriate for a princess) and rode to the east gate to meet Claude.

-------

Olivia paced her bedroom, "Oh Lyra, if only you were here, you would know what to do! You always had such great ideas, and were so smart..." She did a spin on one foot remembering her times with Lyra for a moment. She could lose herself in these memories... but she stopped herself, remembering what she had to do.

"OHhhhh what to do...?" She stepped from her bed and towards a pair of glorious doors on one wall. She threw them open, revealing a balcony overlooking the entire City of Crosstol. Olivia stepped to the edge, peering down upon the little buildings beneath her castle. Her castle was indeed quite glorious, larger than it should be, at her grandfather's request to improve upon it's stature.

"Oh, such unimportant things are good for distracting me from my thoughts of showing my love to Lyra... no wait, that's not what I'm supposed to think of..." then there was a knock on the door to her room. Olivia turned around in an angry flush at being interrupted of her thoughts, stomping across the room as she grumbled under her breath threats of knives and fire...

Her face turned suddenly into that of a beautiful princess, intent on taking care of her people, as she opened the door, "Hello?" She asked, her voice soft and sweet. The small man standing there, while at first not very imposing, would make anyone shiver as they looked at his face. He stood only four feet tall, but if you looked closely you'd notice his expression was that of a horrifying smile, rather than a calming one. His eyes revealed a deep glow, that of someone old and calculating, despite looking no older than perhaps 20.

Upon seeing who was there, Olivia relaxed a little, "Ah, Ryuk, what do you need?" Ryuk was the royal advisor, a man most trusted by Olivia's father and therefore trusted by Olivia. She kept up her smile, but it was somewhat less forced around him.

"Dear child, I have news for you..." He went on to pull out a scroll, marked with the special symbol that showed that it was the scroll of a Derangian spy; this same symbol carried with it a magic that made it unreadable except by certain people.

He hands it over to Olivia, who reads through it, her face losing it's false smile to be replaced by a real smile: She'd just read the name "Lyra" and to her delight, it was in fact about her! She then continued reading, her smile vanishing almost immediately as the letter told her a number of things. Her face was filled with horrid anger, and she was nearly ripping the paper in her hands. The smile on the adviser's face grew slightly, the disturbing effect it holds growing, even though this had no effect on Olivia.

"Is what this says true?" Olivia asked, her tone and face not matching as her voice held a soft note to it.

"Yes," He said, "It came through priority from the checkpoint on the Ardanian side of the for-" He was cut off by Olivia howling in rage.

She quickly contained herself, however, "I apologize, Ryuk. I did not mean to lose control so easily," She nodded her head, and the adviser merely bowed in return, stating that it was no problem, and asking what will be done about this, "I... let me think alone about this, please," Ryuk bowed once more and left, and Olivia closed the door to her room.

She turned around, looking at the note again and again. Lyra was with three other women... Lyra was with three other women... Lyra was with three other women and coming to her.....

Her heart skipped a beat, "Oh, Lyra, I do hope you intend to speak with me personally~" She decided she'd send something to Lyra, a small present to let her know who truly loved her above everyone else.

"Nervous doesn't even begin to describe my current discomfort.."

Looking over at Lyra, Alice pulled on her horse's reins and brought the group to a halt, motioning towards Lily and Valery, just in case they had not seen. Reaching for something wrapped up and strapped to the side of her horse, she looked into the forest's depths, even more on edge than before, fingers twitching in anticipation.

Laughing and swinging his sword in a cocky manner, a rugged, burly, and, well, filthy man stepped out of the dense forest, followed by a group of equally sketchy looking men ranging from weasley to bear-like. About seven men in total, all apparently armed to the teeth.

Alice sighed in irritation. This was going to be a pain, she could already tell.

"Well well well. We heard some yelling from this direction. I'd assumed it was some sort of wild animal, but it looks like we caught a group of traveling ladies instead." The man grinned in an obviously creepy manner. "You know, we could give you something much nicer to yell about if you get off your horses and cooperate. Otherwise, we'll have to cut your pretty throats open."

"Huh huh. In sort, we want your bodies or you money." One of the man's more dim-witted compatriots, grinning in a dopey manner.

"I think they get it, Tor. Now. What'll it be?"

Dropping off of her horse, Alice nonchalantly took the wrap off the object, revealed what looked like a large, heavy, two-handed battleaxe with a spearhead on it. Alice swung the weapon once downward in an arc in front of her, before she let the handle rest against her shoulder as she stared the men down.

"Either get out of our way or I'll move you myself."

The men laughed out loud. "Alright then. It seems your friend here has chosen for you all. A shame." The men proceeded to draw their weapons, waiting for the other group to make a move.

-----------------------------------------------

Outside of the east gate, Sofi was busily collecting smooth stones, which she used to make runes to power her doll-like summons. Cerbi was, of course, right there with her, small enough to fit on her palm and laying down in the grass alongside the path, chewing on a rock.

As she continued searching, she became distracted when she saw a young girl go by. Wait. Was that.. the princess? What was she doing out here without an escort? Princesses and the like usually had at least one guard around them when outside the castle, right? Curiosity got the better of her, and, forgetting about her rune collection, she headed in the direction the princess had gone.

Cerbi scrambled along behind her, growing to the size of a small dog after eating the rock in its mouth, which had actually been a rune he stole from Sofi's pack.

Lily frowned as the bandits stepped out of the woods. She hadn't wanted to have to fight so soon after leaving the castle. She'd expected bandits; but she hadn't expected them to be this close.

She didn't really pay attention as the bandit leader spoke. Instead, she quietly observed the bandits around her. Though they were outnumbered; she could tell rather quickly that she and Alice would be more than a match for these brigands. However, she still didn't have much faith in the elf and dwarf's ability to fight; so she decided to give them a reason to focus on her.

And so, she threw one of her knives at the bandit she guessed was the leader; then jumped off the horse and charged at the nearest bandit with two more knives drawn.

--

Whilst the rest of the party was valiantly exterminating fighting bandits, the brave and heroic Sir Pollinore of Olver was...on her way to a bookstore. It was, of course, a bookstore that she believed held a clue to her brother's disappearance, but a bookstore none-the-less.

Polly, however was half-anticipating, half-dreading the visit; mainly due to the owner of the store. Clearly she would have to mentally prepare herself for the upcoming confrontation. She needed information out of that girl, and she was going to get it.

After a moment of mental preperation, she walked inside.

"Um, anyone in here?" she asked.

Uh oh. Just as she feared. That stupid dwarf's yelling had attracted bandits. This wasn't good at all. She cautiously jumped off her horse. Just her luck, one of the bandits took particular notice of her.

"Lookie here fellas, a pretty little elf," The thug sneered menacingly as he took a step near Lyra, "They sell high on the slave market, I hear."

"Don't even think about it," Lyra glared back at the man, reaching back for her dagger. But... it wasn't there. She had completely forgotten that she had to forfeit all her weapons when she went to meet the queen. Minor set back, but she was still quite capable of taking out this brute.

The bandit only laughed, "She has spirit, looks like I'm gonna have to break her of it." With that he ran at her, swinging a hand ax in her direction.

Quick on her feet, Lyra dodged out of the way, evading his every swing. The horse she had been riding wasn't as lucky. The ax cut deep into it's hide and it let out a loud neigh in pain as it ran off, taking the ax with it. As much as she had hated the horse, she felt a boiling anger at the man who had harmed it.

"Hey lard for brains, over here. Are you so dumb as to mistake a horse for a elf?" Lyra called with a malicious venom in her tone, working her magic in her words. Increasing his irrationality and his anger. "I feel sorry for whoever gave birth to someone as mentally deformed as you."

"You little bitch!!!!" He yelled, charging for the 'little bitch' in question. Everything went exactly as planned. She leap-frogged over the brute's head and sent him head first into the tree with a sickening crunch.

-----

Soon, Claude came up to the gate, pulling along a sleek chestnut horse. As he was coming up, he had spotted the tag along following Candy. Because he was coming up from behind, he let go of the horse reigns for a moment to sneak up behind the spying girl. He then tapped her lightly on her shoulder, possibly taking her for surprise, "Good afternoon, mon cherie. May I be so bold as to inquire what you are doing?"

Valery sneered at the bandits, "Hah, what a bunch of morons," She quickly dropped down from her horse, and pulled out her axe.

"Oh, the little girl wants to play, eh? Well darling, I'll play with you," One of the bandits was facing right at her, but turned towards the Jester when she had jumped off her horse and was charging at one of the others, "Oi, you killed our leader!"

"Hey, I'm your opponent!" Valery declared, pointing her axe at the bandit before her. He turned back, shrugging, "Hehe, bunch of little girls..." He charged at Valery with his cruel looking spiked weapon, and Valery knocked the weapon aside with a strike, and with the same movement came back up and jabbed right into his gut with the axe. The bandit sputtered out blood before Valery pulled back, then kicked him down.

"Hah! That'll get you bandits to learn not to mess with us Dwarves!" She declared.

-----------

Candy stopped her horse at the gate, now waiting on Claude to show up, "Ah, the air of wilderness..." she looked out through the gate and saw trees, lands, a farm that was near the castle wall...

She turned back towards the town to see if Claude was on his way in this direction, and noticed he was talking to a girl. ...Wait what? "Why that little... is he flirting when he's supposed to be helping me?" she dropped down from her horse, walking over to see if she could listen in on what was being said.

"Iiyyah!" Sofi yelped in surprise, turning around and expecting the guard she had not seen with the princess earlier to be right behind her. Instead it was a young man around her age. He was handsome, and was wearing one of the most interesting hats she had ever seen.

Was he with the princess? It seemed to be so, because when she turned around to look the princess was now coming this way. Oh no. "Ah.. I wasn't doing anything sketchy, I swear! The princess was just headed off on her own and.. I didn't see any guards and.. and.. I wanted to make sure she'd be safe and... please don't throw me in the dungeon!"

The kid didn't look like a guard but you never knew. She knew there was a maid in the castle that could snap a tree in half with her bare hands and a jester that could hit a man between the eyes with a knife from ridiculous distances away.. so why couldn't this boy have some kind of amazing ability too?

At this point, her flaming dog had caught up and was now growling at Claude. Sofi frantically motioned at her dog to shut up. "Cerbi, no! He's from the castle, relax boy!"

-------------------------------------------------

The leader was, indeed, dead, a knife precisely embedded between his eyes. Lily was a professional, after all.

As soon as Alice had revealed her giant freaking axe, she had made herself a target, which was just the way she liked it. These men could be cleaved in half easily with her deadly tool but.. she wasn't a naturally bloodthirsty sort. They needed to be.. dealt with.. but she didn't particularly want to cleave anyone in half. As a bandit ran towards her wielding a saber, Alice turned the weapon to the side so she was holding the flat end towards the man, before swinging the weapon sideways and sending him slamming into a tree so hard it caused it to shake.

Another man came after her, the larger and dopey one from before, and she flipped her weapon around, now holding it closer to the blade end and pointing the handle end out towards her opponent. Holding it like you would a jousting lance, she pulled back and jabbed the man in the gut, knocking the wind out of him, before she cracked him over the head with the handle hard enough to splinter his skull.

Both of the men were most likely dead. She felt guilty for it, but she would've felt worse if she let people like them continue to wander around the forest and prey on the innocent. They had made their choice.

Turning to look at the last two remaining bandits, she stabbed the spear-end of her weapon into the ground. "Surrender peacefully, or you will end up like your companions here." As much as they deserved it, there was only so much death she could stand.

------------------------------------

Surprisingly enough, at first there was no response to Polly's call. It didn't seem like Marlene was around.. but the door was unlocked. Off to the right of here desk, there was a trapdoor in the floor which, after a few moments, Marlene popped out of, climbing up a ladder and back into the store. She looked.. surprised.. by Polly's presence in her store, but not as all displeased. Grinning, she closed the door with her foot before making her way over to Polly, not yet showing any signs of flirtatious behavior.

For now.

"Ah! Ser Pollinore. It's so good to see you again. Was there something you needed from little old me~?"

And there it was. She walked over behind her desk, sitting on the stool and sitting cross-legged, her innocent grin now a much more.. sultry one. "I'd be happy to assit you with anything."

James entered the bookstore and looked around. He was searching for Pollinore of Olver, a fellow knight who he knew by name and face but was not particularly well acquainted with. He had located her by asking around town and had taken an hour.

He saw the disguised female in the shop and called out to her. "Pollinore," He greeted with a nod. "I'm Captain James Crescit of her Majesty's royal army, second battalion, sixth company. We have been ordered by none other than our Queen herself to, and I quote, "get our happy asses out and find Candy." He then noticed the shopkeeper's expression. "Oh, pardon my interruption," He apologised, reddening. "Um... I'll wait outside..."

"Well, I...uh...you see my brothe...I mean, a knight I don't really know but have heard about named sir Jonathan may have gotten some books here, and uh..." Polly started to say, when she was interrupted by Sir James.

She was quite surprised to find that she was given another quest so soon; especially when she'd finally found a possible lead on her brother's whereabouts. However, she definately wasn't going to turn down an order from her queen.

She turned to Marlene.

"My appologies, milady," she said. "My business with you shall have to wait until my return,"

And with that, she ran out the door after James.

"Wait! What's happened to the princess? Was she captured?" she asked. "Also, where's Alice?"

--

Lily calmly and quietly slew several of the bandits with her knives before they had time to blink. A few were fast enough to raise their weapons before she cut them down; but none were quick enough to hit her.

She saw two of them attempt to flee; and chased after them. She wasn't going to let a single one of these bandits live long enough to attack any more unlucky travellers.

James' blush subsided and he frowned. "Alice?" He asked, confused. "I was only told to get you. Although, I suppose we can take more if we ask the right people. Uhh..." He glanced back at the shop and focused again. "Ah yes, she was kidnapped. Or so we assume, there is no evidence which suggests so and I've heard that she is prone to sneaking out of the castle. My horse is ready at the gate, we can go when you're ready."

Currently, he was clad in his greaves, vambraces and a simple white t-shirt, the rest of the armour was on his horse. Slung across his back was his longsword and over it was his shield.

Oh look, now there was another knight. He was cute too. Not as much as Pollinore, but not bad. He wasn't here for pleasure, though. While the two spoke, she let her mind wander to what Pollinore had said about her 'brothe', brother of course, Sir Johnathan. That name sounded familiar, but she couldn't remember his face or what he had said to her. She was probably too busy staring at his face, if he had been cute.

She snapped back into the current time when she heard mention of the princess. That cute girl, kidnapped? Who would do such a thing? The very thought that someone would want to hurt that girl made her skin crawl.

Standing, Marlene walked around her counter and went back down the trapdoor, coming back up just seconds later with a thick tome held against her chest. "If the princess is in danger we need to hurry. Come along." Marlene started out without giving them the chance to stop her, beckoning them to get a move on.

James shrugged. He didn't have to clear her coming with him. However, he didn't mind looking after her, but if she slowed them down at all then he'd have to cut her loose immediately. As for food, the Queen had granted him unlimited supplies in order to locate her daughter.

For a moment, he wondered why he had been chosen for such an important task, and why he hadn't been given his entire company to search faster. He was an exceptionally skilled swordsman, possibly the best in Ardania. However, he wasn't particularly high ranking, nor did he think he was that famous.

"Do you have a horse?"

"I see," Claude wasn't sure to believe that, but she didn't seem to be the type to lie. It was then that he noticed the princess approaching. If she was spying, he didn't very well want to see such a cute girl get in trouble for it. So he waved over to the Princess, "Candy, my apologies for the delay. Mon cherie wanted to say her final good byes before I left the castle. But of course, I assured her that I would return to her soon. However, even my soft words of love won't end her distress."

A well spoken lie, told in his usual flamboyant charm. Hopefully that would explain the girl being there without her getting in trouble. Though, maybe filling the girl in on this lie first would have been a good idea, but details were details.

"W-wait, who said we were going to bring you along?" said Polly.

Though Polly had nothing against Marlene; she had the feeling that things would be ackward if they brought her along. Not only that; but the girl was a civillian; and would probably be a liability if she came along.

Valery hoisted up her axe over her shoulder, "Bah, not even a work out!" she looked over to Alice, whistling a bit, "Gotta say, didn't expect your little body to swing around that big axe! And you aren't bad with it, even!" it didn't occur to her she was actually smaller than Alice. This was a minor detail, after all, "Anyway, looks like the jester can kick some ass too," she walked over to the ones still standing at Alice's mercy, and pointed her own axe at them for good measure.

-----------

Candy let out a tiny 'eep' at being caught but she wasn't exactly doing a good job of sneaking so what should she have expected? Candy blushed at Claude's words, "O-oh? Sounds tragic..." she looked over Sofi and Claude, then clapped her hands together, "Then it's decided! She'll be coming along as well!" She smiled brightly, clearly happy with her idea, "And don't worry, it won't be dangerous or anything!" She added, cutting off any counterargument.

Please, ser Pollinore. I'm much more useful than you give me credit for." As the group left the shop, Marlene looked back in and spotted and old woman looking at some books. "Ma'am! I'm heading out for a bit so we're closing up shop. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience."

"Ah, it's okay dearie. I'll just come back another day." The old woman waved goodbye as she shuffled off. Marlene smiled back before turning her attention to the knights once again. "I don't have a horse, no, but I'm sure ser Pollinore would not mind giving me a lift, being a kind gentleperson."

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Sofi looked dumbfounded, repeating mouthing the words 'mon cherie' in confusion. Soft words of love? Wait, what?! Sofi was about to protest before she heard the princess approach and realized he was covering for her. It was an embarrassing way to do so, sure, but at least they wouldn't think she was spying on the princess or anything now.

"Aha.. yeah. I'm just so worried about this trip he was going on that I had to come see him." She stepped over and stood next to Claude, trying not to blush. his may be a lie but.. he was still cute and it was still embarrassing.

Wait, what was princess saying now? "C-Come along with you two? I mean I couldn't impose.." Then she paused and thought about it. She was the princess, after all.. she couldn't just let her and a boy wander off. Plus, this was her chance to see more of the world, even if it was only a little bit. ".. Actually, I'd love to come! It would put my worries to rest for sure!"