Wind Guide You (Thamir)

[EmmaliaChan]

Vivalyn's gaze never left her attackers, tracing their movements with practiced reflexes and reacting to each blow in turn. Though she'd kept them from gaining the upper hand, the mysterious sap on her energy was still affecting her speed and endurance. Her legs felt heavy and she could swear her heartbeat was irregular. Each power-backed swing of the bandits' weapons that met hers pushed her further back, and without Javuh having been by her side, she was sure she'd have ended up being forced to dispatch them from the confines of the cave's corners. He certainly held up the Orsimer reputation as incredible warriors. She was impressed, truly, and was a tad honored he'd asked her for a friendly spar. Someday she'd outrank him, of course! But for now, the Imperial penny-pincher saw him as great competition and a worthy rival.

Narth, with eyes that seemed almost alight with red fury, had gone from quiet background decor to a whirlwind of blood, and no intention of stopping seemed to be on the horizon. Regardless of efficiency, she hacked away at one of the bandits' steel armor with her battleaxe, watching it chip and dent from her summoned weapon. Nearly oblivious to those around her, she couldn't have cared less about their current welfare if she tried, and the bandit she was assaulting - who was perpetually on the defensive and unsure of how to deal with a ghastly axe he could see through - was a wonderful vent for her frustrations. She took joy in his confusion, and pleasure in his pain as he rattled about in his tin can. The dark-haired Orc was toying with him, a wicked grin twisted on her scarred face.

Likely unsurprisingly, she'd not noticed the prisoners, too focused on the fight ahead to worry about trivial matters. To her, civilians were trivial, and open to be collateral damage, if it came to be necessary. All of her old bounty hunter ways had flooded back to become second nature again, and to Narth, that all-encompassing warmth she'd felt during the ride to Ravenscar was like order being restored deep inside her soul. The callousness she'd been infamous for, and all that came with it, had overwhelmed the new persona she'd so fervently tried to adopt in Solitude.

A few blows later and Vivalyn managed to stun one of her attackers after the other became preoccupied with Javuh. It took some effort, especially when she wasn't feeling at her one-hundred percent, but a bash with her hilt and a deadly precise thrust and one of the men was dispatched, on his way to Oblivion where scum like him belonged. It was a satisfying victory, but there was no time to celebrate. There were others to get rid of. She took a few whacks at the backs of Javuh's opponent's stumpy, armored legs, hoping to stagger him for her companion to deal the finishing blow.

[Screen Sights]

Javuh wasn't having too much trouble while fighting. However, from Narth's little stunt before, he would have these occasional pains that would cause him to slow down for a moment and take a few deep breaths. Of course, with this sort of thing going on, he was constantly switching between the defensive and offensive. His defense was great. He constantly used his sword to block attacks from the battle axe being swung in his direction. It took quite a bit out of him, but he was holding up. He wanted to do a powerful downs wards swing, but he felt too tired to do that and that would leave him open to an attack. Just when things appeared as if they would be lasting somewhat long, Vivalyn suddenly start striking the man he was fighting in the back repeatedly. This had of course lead the bandit open for Javuh to land a crushing blow, which he did. When he witnessed his opponent about to swing again, he made a quick maneuver. More specifically, suddenly hitting the guy straight in the face with a fist, stunning him for a moment, before he promptly brought his own blade up and down in an over head swing, quickly cutting the man down.

Once that was done, he smiled for a moment before looking to Narth. Well, she certainly seemed to be doing just fine with the waste of life. However, it almost seemed as if she was enjoying her time just continuously bashing him around, and he could tell considering that it didn't seem like that was swinging to do any lethal damage. Of course, this did bother the male Orsimer slightly as it was unnecessary to grant the bandit life any longer. She could leave the torturing to plains of Oblivion, not up here. He didn't move to stop her though, Ze'kar was already on his way to do that with a well place shot to the back, which slide between the bandits chest plate and his helmet before promptly piercing the back of the mans neck and jutting through his jugular. Of course, the Khajiit wasn't exactly proud of that shot. He was never really proud of his word when it came to having to deal with so much violence. No, he was not squeamish or anything like that, it was more of like he saw engaging in large scale battles as something that went against his normal way of battling, which was from the shadows with hardly anyone noticing a single thing was off. Sadly, his sort of environment for battling wasn't allowed when you had two good distractions that turned everything into a blood bath.

Now, since the threats seemed to be officially wiped from the world, Javuh set his sword back in its sheath, which was on his back. Eventually, he decided to just walk to one of the cages. He could free the prisoners here and they could head back to wherever the came from before they wound up in this cruel position. Why wouldn't he anyway? There did not seem to be anything wrong with him doing what most would expect from someone like him, which was good. Of course, he didn't expect the cages to be unlocked, so he just began to search the bodies for a key or something.

As he did that, he did occasionally look to Narth, suspecting that she was the one who put whatever sort of spell she had up her sleeve on him. It was unnecessary, it had hurt him, and most bothering of all, it was betrayal in his book. He would be sure to confront her on it some time later, but not now. Not when she seemed to be so...'happy' in a sense. IT wasn't that he was afraid of her, but more of he didn't want to fight her or even argue with her.

[EmmaliaChan]

Narth's playtime had ended abruptly through way of the Khajiit's well-placed arrow, and a final twisted chuckle escaped her throat as she watched the bandit fall to choke on his own blood. Not one for mercy, she didn't bother with a finishing blow, allowing the human-shaped boot scum spend his last few moments thinking about who'd taken him down. Briefly, her fanged grin stayed on her face, but as the battle's end washed a thick silence over the room, so, too, did it wash away her instinctual bloodthirst. Her muscles still burned with the aching desire to slice her way through something (or someone), but it was tolerable to suppress, as it had been during the ride.

Meanwhile, after beaming widely at her and the Orc's combined kill, she watched the last bandit go down before rushing to the cages alongside Javuh. Truth be told, the Khajiit's stealth made her nearly forget about him, even despite the steel arrow he'd slayed the third bandit leader with. Dropping to one knee, she offered a caged young Nord a gentle smile, feeling a tad guilty that the man looked so traumatized by what he'd just witnessed. He almost looked afraid of her, as if she, too, would cause him harm.

"Hey, there," She gently greeted, leaning against one of the bars. Her usual booming, hyperactive voice had disappeared, and instead was speaking comfortingly barely above a whisper. "It's okay, we're on your side," He trembled and stared at her with wide blue eyes, but nodded along with her assurance. The woman beside him, bloodied and bruised, was keeping her face buried in her knees, silent except for an occasional whimper. Taking a glance around, Vivalyn asked, "Do you know where the key is?" After a moment of hesitation, the man pointed to the room where the bandits had been eating, and Vivalyn jogged over to it, entering to find an unlocked strongbox. She was glad she didn't have to play Key Hunter for that, too.

Returning to the prisoners, she took the ring of keys and worked her way through the rows of cages, unlocking even those with no living people in them. "Now," She approached the man she'd been talking to before, who was much taller than he'd looked in his tiny cage, and who she'd estimate to be her age, or a little older. Granted, she wasn't the tallest warrior in the world, to begin with, but it was unexpected. "These jerks have to have some sort of transport, right? I'd bet there's a secondary entrance to this cave where they keep their horses," Noting a woman who was having difficulty walking, she first cast a healing spell on her, as well as a few others who desperately needed it, then scooped the woman up princess-style and carried her. After taking another careful look at the walls, without really thinking about it, she commanded the Nord, "Can you pull that chain there, please?" She gestured with her head to a partially obscured ring behind the door to the separate room. He quickly obliged, and a door opened up.

The remaining prisoners, excepting the Nord and the woman she was holding, rushed through and nearly trampled each other trying to get out. Following behind, she was glad to see there were still horses left for the two with her, and she gently lifted the woman onto a horse and bid her farewell, along with the Nord. She smiled as she watched them ride off, hands on her hips and shoulders back with pride of a job well done. Now, there was another matter to attend to; the dead. Returning to the cave, she began looking around for a shovel, grateful to have found one after a brief search.

Narth, however, wasn't having any of her time wasting, and had left the cave before she'd even finished seeing the prisoners off, mounting her horse and heading back towards Solitude. They weren't her problem, really; they were being helped, so she needn't involve herself. Had it been just her there, sure, she probably would've freed them, but it seemed the cocky mercenary had it covered, playing the role of guardian with no thoughts in mind but hoping they'd tell tales of her, because foolish children like Vivalyn thought of life as a storybook. No one would carry her story. Fools and failures like her just didn't inspire bards.

[Screen Sights]

By the time things seemed to cool down, Ze'kar went ahead and disappeared from this group. He got onto once he was outside and simply began to ride off. No point in sticking around anymore. The king only cared if what was asked was done, which involved murdering every bandit in that place, not saving hostages in the situation. While that could possibly get them extra credit, the chances were low considering that they would likely have no form of proof to bring back with them. Actually, no, that wasn't the real reason, the real reason was that Ze'kar didn't care enough for the civilians to actually bring them back in hopes of being paid extra. He only did the mission because the king offered it to him, and he couldn't exactly say no considering that, well, he already had enough on his plate, he didn't need to add 'disrespected the king' onto that, otherwise his plate may break soon.

Back inside, by the time the Khajiit was out of there, Javuh was basically helping out Vivalyn with sort of 'herding' the civilians out of the place. His focus was on one particular scrawny looking old man who looked like he could barely hold on his own. It was a surprise to think that the bandits would strike someone down when they only had a few years left, but at the same time it was not. Surprises, the world was almost way too full of them for one to live one day without being surprised by something at least once. Well, at least that is what it seemed like anyway. Some people just didn't care anymore at this point, but those people were the ones who were old or wise to some extent. This old man had actually told him how he wasn't surprised that this happened because, well, the young prey on the weak very often in this world, and there is no escaping it. Of course, Javuh had agreed and told him that was why the weak needed to become the strong, but the old man seemed to just shrug that off like it was nothing

Helping the man through the door and onto a horse, which road off shortly after, the Orsimer returned to Vivalyn. "Well, it is time for us to go. There is nothing else for us here." The orc said as he walked passed the human and out of the cave. He really still wondered about where the frostbite spider had went. Hopefully it hadn't decided to make a snack out of one their horses. If it tried, well, he certainly hoped it either fought it off or if the second horse was capable of carrying two people clad in heavy armor that could easily weigh down a bear.

Outside, Javuh asked Vivalyn, "Since we're going to be sparring some time, is there any sort of rules that you say should be added or do you believe that everything is alright the way it is? Any place in particular you want to spar instead of the wilderness? Speak up now if you want any changes because once we start, there is no changing of the rules." Javuh said as he made his way to his steed, which should have still be tethered to a tree outside.

[EmmaliaChan]

"Ha, for you, maybe," Vivalyn replied as she found the shovel she'd been searching for. Naturally, she hadn't been searching for a digging tool for the sake of her health, and it wasn't something she did for a bit of casual fun, either. Inspecting the metal of the rusted instrument to be sure it wasn't falling apart, she swung it upwards to against the crook of her neck, the cold metal briefly making her skin crawl. "You go on ahead, I've got some things to take care of yet. Our duel can wait, for now," With a roll of her shoulder to gesture towards the shovel, it explained - or, should have - what business was keeping her from following behind. Honestly? She needed a bit of quiet time, anyway. She always did after a hunt.

Expression quickly turning morose, she began moving towards the farthest cages, a sad, quavering sigh rushing from her chest. That could be her, really. If she wasn't a warrior, and was instead a mere passerby, it could be her. It could easily be someone she cared about. They were innocents who'd done nothing but try to make their way. No one deserved to rot away in such an undignified state, except for maybe the bandits, of which she was more than happy to allow to become a meal for local skeevers.

Remembering seeing a broken cart somewhere in the tunnels, she backtracked a bit and retrieved it, clearing out the bits of wood and rock that had been thrown into it. It made a perfect shuttle once she'd loaded the bodies onto it, even if its poor condition made for a rickety journey outside, and she was soon digging away at the damp, grassy soil in order to make an adequate number of holes. The moisture from the nearby stream made it significantly easier to dig, albeit messier, and before long she'd made enough space. The twin moons were high overhead by the time she finished, and with a final wipe of her brow, she sat herself down on a stump to rest. "I sure could use a Honningbrew. Or twelve. Or maybe a splurge on some good spiced wine," She muttered to herself, leaning tiredly against the shovel's handle. "I'll pour some out for you guys when I get back to Solitude," Chuckling, she added, "In the meantime, knock a few back for me in your respective afterlifes."

Forcing herself up from her spot, she groaned and stretched and let the spade thud against the ground, its usefulness being since gone. At that point, it was time to head back to her horse; assuming the Solitude inn, the Winking Skeever, wasn't at max capacity like it always was, there was a warm bed and hot food waiting for her in the city - not to mention a pile of gold for finishing their mission.

Narth had long since made it home, the ride back clearing her head of her anger and the strange high caused by her passion for battle. Very much back to 'normal' - or what had become normal as of the past half decade - she claimed her reward quietly and returned to her house. By Solitude standards, it was decent enough, though not overly large or extravagant. It was adequately sized for her and she could run her business out of the 'den' she'd turned into a showroom, and thus, she was happy with it.

Grabbing a fresh apple from the kitchen, she loudly crunched into it and reflected on the royal gold now lining her pockets. The day had been eventful, for certain. Her meekness had briefly become hatred, but she could feel herself rapidly slipping back into her poor self-esteem. Pangs of guilt flooded her conscience from the poor decision she'd made to sap the energy of the Orsimer warrior she'd been fighting alongside, especially so due to him getting injured as a direct result. She'd been... Blinded. There was no other word for the sensation of complete loss of control she'd experienced. It reminded her so much of the past, but, she wondered, had it always been that way? Was it always so... Natural?

Rubbing harshly at her face with her free hand, she sighed. Perhaps the Solitude residents were right. Perhaps she was naught but a feral, uncivilized animal that couldn't be domesticated, couldn't be helped, couldn't be trusted. She spotted her reflection in the polished metal of a shield hanging on the wall, a trophy from a Jarl for a past bounty. Even after all that, it was still her. It was still just Narth Rugdar staring back from the metal with familiar wide black irises.




((OoC; I tried to leave this as open as I could for you to potentially have Javuh assist or leave her to it and end up seeking out Narth, whichever you thought was best. Hope it translated well!))

[Screen Sights]

Upon hearing that Vivalyn actually would not be joining him on the journey back, he raised a brow before actually waiting around for a moment. Seeing her grab the shovel and seeing that look on her face, he could piece together what she was planning on doing a little quickly. Instead of just standing there the entire time, the orc actually decided to help her without so much of a word. Why not speak? Well, why speak what you made your motivations obvious here? He wanted to her her in doing something like this because, well...it was good to say the least, and it did go against her more obnoxious personality, in his eyes, but this was an improvement, again, to say the least.

Of course, things were somewhat sad here considering how time and life had went by the innocents who were deceased here. Sure, they didn't know any of them at all, but that didn't matter. They had the privilege of living torn away from them from someone who wanted to tear it away despite their innocence. If that was the way they were going to go, then Javuh saw it fit too for them to have a more proper burial. It was quite the bit of work, actually, even for someone like him. In the end though, he felt like it was worth it, somewhat, but he wasn't going to start complaining.

So now that things were done and now that they were ready to make their way back, Javuh got onto his horse and began to make his way back to Solitude. Winking Skeever was his stop there. He needed a break before he did anything. That spar session he was planning could wait until tomorrow when he was feeling so tired and winded. He still felt somewhat effected by that spell he suspected Narth had put on him. He hadn't seen her in action, but she was a powerful mage, so he had every right to suspicious.

On the way back, Javuh had been wondering about something. "So, Vivalyn, about our sparring session. Would you prefer that we use real weapons or something along the lines of a twig, or branch, to substitute for a sword. Of course, with real weapons, we won't actually hit each other with them. With the sticks though, we will, but it won't simulate using the real thing too well." He said as his horse galloped along with Vivalyn's.

Back at Solitude, Ze'kar had already received his payment, and extra after doing a little bit of pick pocketing. Once that was done, he actually didn't even bother heading to the Winking Skeever. Instead, he chose to take his payment and pretty much just leave the hold. It was never a good idea to stay in a hold when you were an assassin, that just painted a target on your back. You didn't know if someone would attack you or something, and Ze'kar preferred to play it safe and not sorry. A 'sorry' doesn't save you at all, so it was better to just avoid having to say, or feel, that way.

[EmmaliaChan]

For the walk back to their horses, Vivalyn had been silent. A distant, contemplative look had replaced her ever-present determined grin, and her gait wasn't quite as wide and bumbling. For all intents and purposes, this thoughtful, more tired Vivalyn seemed like an entirely different person.

Before mounting up, she took a few seconds to greet her horse with a nuzzle, which the beast affectionately returned. Then, climbing atop her longtime companion, she rode alongside the Orcish warrior on the way back to the city, two sets of hoofbeats the only sounds able to be heard for quite a while. "Hmm...? Oh, um," She said, snapping out of her thoughts briefly after he'd spoken. Shouting slightly to make sure she was heard over the galloping animals, she said, "Real blades are fine. I doubt I'd do well with a stick, the weight distribution is far too different," She laughed half-heartedly. Her greatsword had plenty of heft, both in the hilt and the blade itself. "Whenever I've sparred it's been with real weapons."

The ride ended soon after. It being too late to retrieve her reward, as the King and his consul were most definitely asleep, she decided it best to head straight to the nearest beds for rent immediately after putting her horse in the stable. As they rode up to the stalls, she gestured to the farthest one. "Look," The brunette dismounted and led the horse the rest of the way in. "Narth's horse. Guess she stayed, too," Once he was secured in, she gave him a few final pats for night, then thoughtfully added, "Or maybe she lives here? I'm not sure."

With the stableboy tipped for his services of watching her horse, and another good stretch after the lengthy ride, she turned back to Javuh. The cocky grin on her face from that afternoon had finally returned, though it seemed a bit more tired; it was clear she was pushing herself to stay awake. "So," She began, leaning against her forearms after folding them behind her neck. "Tired as I am, I'm starving, too. Get some celebratory late supper with me? Drinks on me!" She may've been a cheapskate when it came to... Basically everything, actually, but after a depressing day combined with a successful and very special bounty hunt, she wasn't above splurging on a much needed victory celebration.

[Screen Sights]

"Okay then." Javuh said after receiving his answered. Truly, he was hoping that she would say that for it would basically allow them to, you know, use something they're used to. He only offered up using a stick just in case things seemed a little too dangerous for her taste. Then again though, she seemed like that type of girl who was into dangerous situations. Most of the time anyway. Hopefully, while sparring, she wouldn't go swinging her sword around like, you know, it was a real fight and that she was actually trying to kill him. That would be bad for obvious reasons. Javuh wasn't exactly aiming to hurt her, even in self defense.

Also putting his horse into the stable, he looked over to where Vivalyn was gesturing before noticing the same horse Narth was on at the start of this mission. "Considering how long she has been in and around Solitude, I would say that she lives here." Javuh stated as he got off of his horse before he began to make his way to the Winking Skeever with Vivalyn. When he suddenly heard her actually offering to pay up for something for the both of them, Javuh felt somewhat surprised and felt as if what came next was necessary.

"Are you sure that you want to pay for our food? I thought you would have preferred to keep that money for training." He did recall, at the beginning of all of this, her mentioning that she was pretty much gathering up coins for training sessions with better trained swordsmen and such. Now, he wasn't trying to call her cheap or selfish, but she did basically say that she was saving it for something else here.

[EmmaliaChan]

She laughed. "You really must be tired, old man," Vivalyn teased, giving him a friendly smack on his heavily plated shoulder as she walked past him to start heading towards Solitude. The road seemed like a much longer haul now that her legs felt like she had cow carcasses attached to them. "Only drinks are on me," Putting a slight emphasis on 'drinks' in reference to the original statement she'd made, in a half-joking, mostly serious addition, she explained, "I'm not having you order a feast and stick me with the tab," Orcs were known for their ravenous appetites, and he was still very much a mere stereotype to the naive young Imperial.

Thinking a bit on his previous remark as she walked, she turned a curious, almost mischievous gaze towards Javuh. "How do yoooou know how long she's been here?" She asked, almost suggestively. Okay, not 'almost'. The undertones of implying he might be a bit too familiar with her were blatant. "You didn't seem know her personally, so..." Her expression turned full-on goofy. Anyone would expect her to burst out into the sort of songs children would tease each other with if they suspected one of their pals had a touch of a crush on someone. "I guess she's kind of pretty, if you were looking at her from an Orc perspective," Which was hard to do, for her. Orcs were weird. Vivalyn didn't see the appeal in humans that looked kinda like wild pigs.

The guards paid them little mind as they headed through, for once not idly gossiping amongst themselves - even if a quiet, self-directed comment about wanting mead and a bed could be heard as they approached - and all-in-all, she was a bit marveled by how different it looked at night. Particularly this night. It seemed every other visit had been dampered by clouds, but the stars shone in a brilliant array overhead, and bright brown eyes looked up in wonder.

[Screen Sights]

Now, Javuh did eat a lot, but he didn't eat so much that not even eating an entire horker would satisfy his appetite. Really, someone could probably say he ate less than most orcs who ate a lot more than someone, well, a human anyway, would deem necessary. He wasn't really expecting her to order him a feast, but he was just expecting her to order him something in general, and he thought that she was going further than just drinks. That's what he got for giving her a little too much credit, sounding like an idiot to her with every passing second. Well, maybe idiot was too harsh of a word. 'Selective hearing' did sound better to him, although then he sounded like a selfish bastard, and he was, by no means, selfish in anyway, and he had proven that numerous times before.

And now this was what he got for talking a little too much. He didn't exactly see Narth as some gorgeous lady that he would want to be married too or anything similar to that. However, she was an experienced bounty hunter and experienced bounty hunters tended to hear about other experienced bounty hunters over time. Plus, Javuh had been in this line of work for quite some time and it would have been somewhat of a surprise considering how easy it was for word of any kind to spread around this place. Only people who didn't pay attention, or just didn't care, would actually, you know, not know of anything go on in the world. It was difficult to not hear about what happened here or there or who died or who nearly died around this place when there was always so much happening.

"I don't exactly see her as this beautiful thing, but I just know things about her from seeing her around her multiple times and that just eventually gave me the sign that she lived her. I know that is jumping to conclusions, but there wasn't exactly anything disproving that." Javuh stated as they passed by the guards who finally seemed more focused on their work than chatting, or flirting, with each other. They could only talk for so long anyway.

(This was somewhat rushed because it was typed up before I had to go do other things that would take up a lot of my time.)